The Humble and Silky Life

Peonies

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready

to break my heart

as the sun rises,

as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open -

pools of lace,

white and pink -

and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes

into the curls,

craving the sweet sap,

taking it away

to their dark, underground cities -

and all day

under the shifty wind,

as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,

and tip their fragrance to the air,

and rise,

their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness

gladly and lightly,

and there it is again -

beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.

Do you love this world?

Do you cherish your humble and silky life?

Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,

and softly,

and exclaiming of their dearness,

fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,

their eagerness

to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are

nothing, forever?

-Mary Oliver

I love this time of year. The peonies are in gorgeous bloom, reminding me to stop and breathe deeply. To sit and wonder. To be here now, accepting all that is - the preciousness, the fear, the pounding in the chest, the softness, the yielding. The ache of it all.

I so miss my blog and I miss connecting with all of you. Thank you for your requests for me to start blogging again, for adding yourselves as followers during my dry spell, for both the gentle and not-so-gentle nudges. Especially for the not-so-gentle. Your encouragement means a lot, as I am someone who easily gets off track with the creative things I want for myself.

Poetry, as some of you know, was and is my first true love. So here I am again, trying to show up, wanting to be less of a perfectionist and to share more of my vulnerable self, to put what I have to say out into the world. And to find out what I am so afraid of.