2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 26
Posted by Robert
Well, now that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is over, I guess it's time to move on to other pressing matters, such as getting to today's prompt and poem. But first, let me thank every single person who participates in these challenges and reads the blog throughout the year. I am so thankful for you, especially those of you who go through the frustration of adding a comment 50 billion times before it takes. Today's prompt may come as no surprise, because...
For today's prompt, I want you to write a thankful poem.
Enjoying the Harvest and Tucking the Garden In
This, after
Wide, Deep Raised Beds
and From Seed to Harvest,
and A Self-Sufficient Garden
This before, of course,
Rot and Recycle
Enjoying the Harvest and Tucking the Garden In
I turn the pages because he no longer can
This book will tell me everything I need to know
How to start from seedlings even late in the year
how to nourish from the root
how to dig deeper, deeper than you'd think
was necessary.
He was going to loan the guide to me
but when he says he is giving it to me
well, yes.
His head hands from a weak neck like a huge Italian sunflower.
Musclerot. Infestation. Mulch.
What can I grow from your life?
Teach me to tend it properly,
to bring your stunning black humor
to pink and fluttering flower.
This is all we can do for each other.
Nourish the root, year round, with gratitude
with respect for inevitable transition
for all these bountiful gifts
and those things we can pull from the dirt to eat
Enjoy this with wine and laughter at least once more
before we turn the giving garden
and tuck it, properly, in.
No comments:
Post a Comment