Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!
Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.
The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.
I was caught up reading various pieces connected to Earth Day yesterday - concerns, wishes and more predictions! And I read this quote from a poet friend taken from a book on my list, wishing I had time to read the whole book now! "I suspect we would pay more attention to trees if we could establish beyond a doubt just how similar they are in many ways to animals.” – Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees HERE is one amazing article about Wohlleben and trees from The Smithsonian. Thus, without proof, I imagined things a bit further as you will see from my poem.
Rara Avis
Poetry mystifies,
especially in spring.
Poet’s words share secrets
of a small white bulb,
beginnings of violets.
It comforts us to read
that it will never
ever
become a rose.
And confronts us to ask
if it comforts the violet?
Linda Baie ©
Lovely, thought provoking poem, Linda. Fascinating to think of trees as being similar to animals. Both are alive after all, and there's always been a belief in animism among some native peoples. I know in ancient Hawaii they believed everything had a spirit/soul -- not only plants but stones too. Still, it's quite miraculous that bulbs know precisely what flowers they will become, no questions asked. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jama. I am fascinated by this new thinking, that trees and others do acts that appear to be conscious ones. I will keep reading!
DeleteI loved Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees and think we need a revolution in how we see other species. Have you read Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, to return to your poem, I love how it reframes our thinking about the violet. It opens us up to the new kind of democracy that Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about in her book.
Thank you, Cheriee, for seeing this as a new way of thinking. I have Braiding Sweetgrass on my 'long' list, hope I can get to it soon!
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