Speck of Gold

*Inspired by and based on the poem “Bracken” by Kai Carlson-Wee.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/bracken?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Teach%20This%20Poem%20%20April%208&utm_content=Teach%20This%20Poem%20%20April%208+CID_02fcdb9fbcfe5e448e7dd38693d11949&utm_source=Email%20from%20Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Bracken

Don’t go in search of the perfect love.
Don’t go looking for signs of adoration,

the neverending fountain of lust. The sweetness

will touch your lips when it needs to.
The harmony will find you. Faith will come.

Don’t go kneeling. Don’t go
certain of one true match. Go open,
but be your own protector, true in your imprecise self.

Be present and perceive.  Seize what you are today,
don’t wish for what you will one day become.

What matters will rise. The flames flare and die.

Tides rise and fall.  Hold a hand, talk of the world.

You’ll be that leaf on the tree,

that dandelion underfoot in the end. Your legacy will lie

in the speck of gold in an eye. The pages you wrote

on a windy day.

Poem in Which I Recognize

*based on Paola Capo Garcia’s “Poem in Which I Only Use Vowels”

Poem in which I accept

Poem in which I rage

Poem in which I am young again

Poem in which I recognize I’m still young

Poem in which I fresh air

Poem in which I laze

Poem in which seasons run together

Poem in which I leave nothing behind

Poem in which I remember without shame

Poem in which I bleed

Poem in which I have faith

So Much Depends (poems inspired by)

The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams

so much depends upon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white chickens.

_______________________________

so much depends upon

a pouring rain

muddying the lawn

in late summer.

_______________________________

so much depends upon

a ripe apple

pink and plump

picked from nearby orchards.

_______________________________

so much depends upon

a waking cat

stretching hind legs

beside the morning window.