The Paddock Review

Permanence

            

The bloom of the hydrangea may be more breathtaking

And lush in its multiple fullness,

The peaches more fragrant and heavy

As they drag the branch down toward the dark, moist earth;

The jays and doves come with ruffled wings,

Only recently awakened from shells, with unsteady gait,

And the butterflies need multiple attempts

Before they can sip enough nectar

And flutter off with footprints of pollen.

All these tell nature’s transient story.

 

There is a richer tale hidden deep in the unseen germinating seed

In the fruit’s ovarian pit that harbors life

In the fragile eggs coddled and warmed in tree-blind nests

And in the sticky-webbed cocoons where

Ugly, prickly-haired caterpillars dream of beauty.

 

We are allowed only a moment’s glance

Before all goes underground

To a restless sleep

Anticipating another dawn.

 

This poem is from the chapbook Almanac of Reckoning by Sandra Salinas Newton (Finishing Line Press) and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/almanac-of-reckoning-by-sandra-salinas-newton/

ALMANAC OF RECKONING is a collection of lyrics that charts the intersections between observation and experience, memory and desire, loss and consequence. Its poems resonate with the sights and sounds of nature viewed through the human emotions of passion, grief, and remorse. Despite what this poetry asserts about the generally sad condition of life, it nevertheless acknowledges that there is much to be learned – and thus, celebrated – about ourselves. As long as we have voice to say, “This is the worst,” the very utterance of that voice contradicts itself, because our power to recognize our faults and weaknesses is the reckoning that leads us to redeem ourselves.