Earth Day

And the return of the fawn lilies

As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow, I thought I would re-share one of my favorite poems, inspired by lilies in a forest near my home.

Listen to the Fawn Lilies

Just out of reach

the mist floats above
quietly cloaking the great sentinels
until drifting down to seduce me, stumbling,
upon the uncertain path ahead
where scarred souls are etched
deep into the ghostly wood.

Watching, waiting, revealing 

the raw self-inflicted wounds
festering beneath a film
of tired and beaten ancestral dust.

Willing

a simple plea.
Take thread to needle
and carefully stitch -
plainly, thoughtfully, repeatedly -
through hardship and denial
to bind in beauty, strength, and hope,
in the sharing of each story
a tapestry formed in blood stained
earthen fibers
bearing witness to
a cruelty of broken promises.

And so I walk.

I Listen.

Wanting to remain hidden
yet willfully coaxing my stitches across
a landscape of painful memories
in a galaxy of unknown futures,
as moonlight and dust coalesce into these tear soaked and mud laden steps
patiently assuring me that it is time
to return to this earthly realm
sheltered deep within the forest.

Here.

Wrapped wholly together
in the warmth of quilted comfort.
I, and this portentous apparition
piercing cloth with bone
as we bow down in harmony
reaching out this final time
to drink the dew drops
formed upon each delicate
star kissed petal
of these newly born

Fawn Lilies.

May we act to protect that which nurtures and inspires.

Happy Earth Day,

Jennifer

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Poem Originally posted previously on Substack here (with reading):