Welcome to Poetry Friday! What is Poetry Friday?
This week we are hosted by Carol Here at Beyond Literacy. Like me, Carol has been occupied this week writing a daily poem on Facebook along with author Laura Shovan‘s 13th Annual February Poetry Project. Thank you, Laura for this opportunity!
It’s been fun and the daily prompts have helped me find new ideas that might spark a poem. Plus I get to read the work of other poets.
One prompt asked us to write about small spaces. Hmm.
What came to mind were seeds, which are of course very small spaces filled with blue print of a new plant. Also I thought about how plants seem to adhere to a purpose, they do what they can to have a healthy life.
Plants, unlike us, follow its instruction and have it seems the wisdom to flourish. Unlike us, they don’t get distracted from their mission. They don’t self destruct. They simply grow and become part of a forest.
LAKE TAHOE
REDWOOD SEED
doesn't have the power to think,
feel, see, smell or taste
as it navigates life,
(we are so gifted!)
yet a redwood moves
faithfullY
towards its sacred destiny,
growing taller and wider,
year after year,
decade after decade,
it fits in
among neighbors
and if nature grants it,
it lives a long life.
But as redwoods
tower silently above us
like cathedrals,
human neighbors
spin round and round
in ever more
wasteful
and tragic
circles.
Janice Scully 2025
Thank you, Carole for hosting Poetry Friday. Have a great weekend!
Janice, oh, what we could learn from redwoods. This is lovely, thank you.
Janice, that lesson at the end of your poem is rich. Redwoods like cathedrals, oh that us spinning, wasteful and tragic, under their canopies could look up and learn as you suggest here. Beautiful poem.
A seed as a small space. That’s brilliant, Janice! (I thought of my New York apartment, which was only a little bigger than a seed.) I enjoyed reading about the redwood and their “sacred destiny.” That’s a good way of putting it.
Hi there, Janice, redwood admirer. The one time I stood craning m neck to see the tops of redwoods in one of their famous groves [ I’m way down here among palms & magnolias in Florida] I wondered about the size of their seed.
And your poem lines:
“they fit in/
among neighbors”
says so much, so much.
Appreciations.
[Hope that new grandbabe is doing grand 🙂 ]
Thanks, Jan. My little Tommy is leaving the hospital this weekend! He’s getting round and doing great. Thanks for reading. ☺️
Happy to read your response to Jan, Janice, that your Tommy is going home! That is wonderful news! As for your poem’s wisdom, oh what a comment for our erratic thinking that humans are above all else! (we are so gifted) is all you need to say!
Thanks, Linda. The baby came home today ( Sunday) and we’re all so happy and feel so fortunate. He’s adorable! Of course I would say that.:)
Oh I love thinking of trees as cathedrals!
We have so much to learn from trees! Thank you for this.
Janice, “very small spaces filled with blue print of a new plant” is practically a poem on its own. What a beautiful poem…and we’re going to Oregon/northern California soon to see redwoods!
I love the writing in February! I just struggle with the guilt of not getting around to reading everyone’s offerings. I’m headed over to facebook to read up on some of the latest space poems. I love how you use the word faithfully in this poem…and silently and like cathedrals. Wonderful take on the prompt.
Janice, these lines make me think back to my days in the Redwood Forest-their majesty is amazing.
Love grows from a starter seed
planted small in your heart
Life is interrupted one more time for me. That is why I am late in responding. (This time my husband is in the hospital.)
May love grow for all of us,
Carol, I hope your husband is doing ok. Hope he’s home or will be soon. 🫶🏻
Carol, I hope your husband is doing ok. Hope he’s home or will be soon. 🫶🏻