Contributed by Julie Hansen
Julie: Sharon, I like the paths blog. There is a poem that Emma wrote that I thought of it right away.
It's a gardening poem about growth, but the growth is life as well as flowers.
Sharon: I do like the poem and a lot. I look the liberty of adding in specific pictures to illustrate ideas that came to mind... the amazing face of the female snapping turtle-- ancient, wise, kind, fierce and a four season series that I have always loved.
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| Female snapping turtle works to fit through fence into field on her way |
Growth
I can see you now,
eyes closed and arms full
of flowers, still dripping dirt,
roots lolling around your fingers,
as I look out through the kitchen window.
You told me the names of the flowers once,
but I can never recall them,
and I suddenly have the urge to ask
you what they are,
because I don’t want to keep forgetting.
Your glasses have slid
down your nose just a bit,
and it makes you appear much older
(perhaps older than I’d like
to admit you are).
I can see your mouth open,
sighing with the strain of age,
as you stand to survey your work.
You take a breath, eyes gazing,
a sense of accomplishment draped
across your squinting eyes, and your half-open mouth.
I can see you now
lean the rake against the tree,
the sun dipping into the mountains behind you,
and I commit this image to memory, because I am terrified
that one day I’ll forget it.
---Emma Hansen
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| Female snapping turtle makes her way across a field, close up |
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| The path through the woods from the garden in all seasons- a circle without ending that always includes renewal |
1 comment:
Julie and Emma
I couldn't help being drawn into the story in the poem and of the mothers request for the daughters poem.
The poem is lovely with rhythm and rich with detail.
after picking pictures I wanted to explain or explore the process that was brought up in Emma's poem and ricochets in my mind. Here is my first mulling.
It is easy to forget that our change with growth and age
are seasons
we are women and so intimately connected with the earth
seasoning, weathering, ripening, melting and growing
every earthly process includes renewal
still we forget
yet at the end of each forgetting we remember,
which is another kind of renewal
Perhaps one day on the path, on a fall day, we create an indelible image of our mother
thanks to terror and forgetting.
Sharon
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