Linda gave us our May challenge. We were each paired up with another Inkling, then sent off a poem and received a poem. Linda asked us to “Fiddle with, play with, tinker, tear-apart, be inspired or stumped by the poem.”
Molly sent me two poems to choose from. I picked this lovely ode to spring:
Gardening
Ancient alchemy
the shine of sun
the gurgle of water
the bump of dirt-gritty fingers,
nudging seeds from sleep
to grasp and strain against soil
to rise up and up
always a becoming
©Molly Hogan
I contemplated Molly’s words for several days, turning them over and over in my brain, waiting for them to nudge a new idea. Then, as I listened to The Slowdown one morning, Major Jackson’s question, “What if I never fell in love with the world?” finally helped an idea “rise up.” Full disclosure: many lines from this poem are taken from other poems of mine.
What if I never fell in love with the world?
What if the ancient alchemy
that turns light into life
never captured my imagination?
Would the first trills of the peepers still
fill me with glee?
Would I notice the sharp-lobed hepatica
erupting from leaf litter,
their pale pink petals
streaked like the morning sky?
So often life pulls us from
our intended path,
distracts us from
our true north.
This morning’s bird-bright
joy
confettiwraps
the world,
reminding me to meet
each day with eyes wide open,
clear intentions,
and optimism
in the face of a fickle world.
Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2024
Please be sure to visit all the Inklings to read their responses to Linda’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Then head over to visit Buffy Silverman for the Poetry Friday Roundup.
Reading to the Core 
I’m so glad you had some garden time to recenter yourself!
These lines are all kinds of perfect, including a tribute to Molly’s amazing birding and photography passions:
This morning’s bird-bright
joy
confettiwraps
the world
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I love confettiwraps. And the pure optimism of this poetic duo.
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What a wonderful question — what if I never fell in love with the world? That line alone could inspire a thousand more poems. : )
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So much to love in this poem (and this time of year!) I love that Molly’s ancient alchemy led you to the trill of peepers, the pale pink blooms of hepatica, and the joy that “confettiwraps the world”–a swoon-worthy phrase if ever there was one.
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It seems that the question is one everyone should ponder, Catherine! You showed us ‘why?’ so beautifully! It reminds me of a poem that tells us to “look long” and your lines, “Would I notice the sharp-lobed hepatica” and the rest of the verse showed us the answer! I so enjoyed reading this on a lovely spring day!
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Yes! I mean no! I mean yes to this poem and no, if you had never fallen in love with the world, how could you have noticed all that you bring into sharp and loving focus in this poem? True north, true north, true north/keep swimming/go west/southern sun…you’ve made alchemy here that makes me want to play!
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Catherine, what a lovely intertwining of Molly’s and your poems. Beautiful poem, and I love the title sentence you found on The Slowdown. This stanza made me smile and think of possibilities:
“This morning’s bird-bright
joy
confettiwraps
the world,”
So much joy!
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Oh, that question is a doozy! I love how it sparked your response and how you crafted your poem, so full of natural wonders and poetic marvels. I love the specificity of that “sharp-lobed hepatica”, and “confettiwraps” is pretty marvelous. Thanks for sitting with my poem for a while and responding so beautifully!
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