Is it still January? It hardly seems possible. My coping strategy for the tumult of the past few weeks has been knitting: 8 hats since Christmas. All that knitting equals very little time for writing. But I miss the routine of Poetry Friday. So today I’m sharing a poem I wrote back in December for a workshop with Georgia Heard. As always, Georgia inspired us to stretch ourselves by writing variations on the cinquain. This draft is a butterfly cinquain, a “nine-line syllabic verse of the pattern 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 2 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2.” It needs more work, but it’s an important reminder for me today.
Resilience
A wild
verdant glade where
feathery ferns unfurl,
moss creeps into every hollow.
Air hums
alive with rustling cicadas,
while sprouts stir in ancient
spruce stumps: fragile
saplings.
Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2021
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Reading to the Core 
The sounds of the cicadas in summer send the message of resilience. I am thinking the same thing, Is it still January? Thanks for sharing this poem reminder of the resilience of nature.
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I love the green color of moss and your poem is such a green one. Life is resilient, as plants like moss recycle old stumps like the one in your photo. Thanks for sharing your cinquan. You’ve inspired me to write one.
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Soft surprise ending & beautiful poetry from your talented mind. The foto is yours? A beautiful trunk home for moss.
I am still not there yet with my cinquain 🙂
Brava, you!
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What a wonderful vivid butterfly cinquain. I’ve yet to write one I’m happy with, so I envy yours!
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The poem and the photo go so well together. I love the rustling cicadas.
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I want to go where your butterfly cinquain takes us. It’s beautiful and warm, I’m sure. 8 hats?! Wow. I’m like that with collage. I just put my anxiety into cutting up bits of paper and gluing them in crazy ways. I like your two syllable lines best and together…”a wild/air hums.” Thanks for sharing, Catherine!
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I take comfort from how life grows from decay in nature over and over again. Your poem captures that resilience.
I, too, have been finding comfort in yarn, but with crochet instead. So far a hat, scarf and the beginnings of a blanket.
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Oh, it is so beautiful with that tiny sapling in the stump, Catherine. Still January for one day more, am not sure February will be a lot better, except Valentine’s Day will be there. Love your springtime words chosen, a call for that feeling when “air hums”. I love that you are knitting away!
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