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Lenten Poems: Installment #1

Despite the vernal equinox passing a good two weeks ago, and despite the deceiving name of "April" to describe this month, it is still very much winter. My beloved Tom keeps trying to convince me that cloudy, rainy days with temperatures in the 50's are lovely spring days. I find such days to be more in keeping with the season of Lent we are currently in than with any sort of springtime. And perhaps this is good. I haven't posted here much lately, and part of that is due to a commitment I made to myself to write poems during Lent. My original commitment was to write a poem every day during my sweet baby Piper Joy's  naptime. But lots of things happen during naptime that are out of my control like Nurse Cori visiting, or me needing to do my bookkeeping for Dad, or tutoring sessions with students, or insert any other possible thing here that might make it difficult to keep Lenten commitments. As with most areas in my life these days (motherhood/wifehood days), I am learning to be content with less than my original intention. Hopefully, in time, I will learn to have intentions in keeping with what I am actually able to accomplish.

All of that being said, I have turned out a few poems over the past weeks. They are not fully edited by any stretch, but I wanted to share a few here over the next few days in hopes that their focus on Lenten themes will lead you, readers, to contemplation and maybe some prayer. I will include the concept I was thinking about while writing this poem to get you started... although I usually don't stay centered around the initial concept for long!

1.  
(God's way is perfect)

Two red boots crunch leaves,
Flowers too.
Mashed, pliant petals in earth
Buried. Death has already happened here.


A temperature drop froze maple leaves
Deep red.
Red, their last song into the wind.
Red, their last dance into the sky.
And dead on the ground,
Red too.
Eventually, brown,
Leaves become earth.

But these purple flowers,
They
are not dead.
They
are newly springing up!
Even where red boots force
Collapse of their breathing lungs,
They peek. Out. From under leaves.
Hide - and now - Seek.

"Desert Willow" by Dallas Lam



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