poem

Ellen Hoverkamp

poem

what of radishes lettuce peas

lifting out of the hard ground!

and if you could hear the strain of labor

or even imagine the unimaginable pressure

on the backs of the bean!

all night soaking in sweat of dew

on the mother-bedded exhaling acres

stars pricking the future above them

while worms chew and grubs curl inward

roots spreading in stony underkeep.

and then the sun diffusing a bluish light

then wave on wave mounts and shoots

vociferous to their patient sheds of green

a blinding hallelujah of fire

and yes yes yes to possibility.

John Gill

It's a great question - how do those seed sprouts push themselves up through the dirt? These things we take for granted! All the mysteries surrounding us that we barely notice! I love Gill's description of what's happening "in stony underkeep". And what a victory it is when the sun sends them a "blinding hallelujah of fire". I say yes to possibility too. If tiny, seemingly lifeless seeds can break out and sprout up from their prisons into expanding, flourishing life - is there any good reason I can't?