Looks deceive, dead seed pods
and limbs bereft of leaves.
Grey leaden sky,
and chilling winter breeze.
We hunker down,
layered like the earth beneath.
Wondering what still lives,
what might still breathe.
But looks, they deceive.
For under the pile of cast-off broken leaves,
as quiet as the tomb,
the earth holds its breath.
And waits. Just as we awake,
breathe and stretch towards the light,
so the earth waits,
still, and expectant of life.
Yes looks deceive,
for underneath, stirring and lengthening,
are seeds, growing to bursting;
awaiting the turning seasons.
We too are mistaken,
to believe nothing is happening;
brittle hearts covered,
in last year’s debris and bracken.
Wondering how renewal and restoration,
can appear a possibility,
when all is sodden?
But lo behold, life is coming.
Like sun on snow,
our hearts begin thawing.
Like light on the hills,
spring ascends the horizon.
Not one moment too soon, nor too late,
in arriving.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
2 comments
Beautiful….”like sun on snow, our hearts begin thawing.” God’s work is unseen and steady.
Beautiful poem, “apples of gold in settings or silver” like the Proverb says. How a word well chosen can speak; ‘bracken’ got my attention – sound connoting ‘that which has been broken’ or ‘the pile up of many little straws, brick-a-brack, that can break the camel’s back’. . I love it!
Denise Stair-Armstrong