Green grass and a chickadee sings
small as my five-year old’s fist and holding
as much heart, as much glee at today’s
rain-drenched flowers, blue hyacinths budding
so fully they are falling over and crabapple trees
every inch a dot of pink. Can I handle
the abundance of this season
without my heart freezing in dread?
Can I hold this goodness
tender as a bird song in spring?
…
This poem is from the chapbook Making Home by Elise Toedt (Finishing Line Press) and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/making-home-by-elise-toedt/
Elise Marie Toedt, PhD is a writer, researcher and teacher whose research interests span gender, education, and writing studies. Her poetry focuses on simple daily rituals of present attention and appreciation, experiences of love and foibles within human relationality, and the role of care as pleasure and care as work within a capitalist social context. She currently teaches in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Follow her work at https://www.elisetoedt.com/.
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