POEM

Planting the Meadow

by Mary Makofske

Mary Makofske
I leave the formal garden of schedules
where hours hedge me, clip the errant sprigs
of thought, and day after day, a boxwood
topiary hunt chases a green fox
never caught. No voice calls me to order
as I enter a dream of meadow, kneel
to earth and, moving east to west, second
the motion only of the sun. I plant
frail seedlings in the unplowed field, trusting
the wildness hidden in their hearts. Spring light
sprawls across false indigo and hyssop,
daisies, flax. Clouds form, dissolve, withhold
or promise rain. In time, outside of time,
the unkempt afternoons fill up with flowers.

This poem originally appeared in the May 2001 issue of Poetry.

May 2001 issue of Poetry Magazine

THIS ISSUE IS SOLD OUT

Mary Makofske attended Douglass College and the University of Minnesota, where she earned an M.A. . . . MORE »

Related

More Nature Poems

More Activity Poems

More Metaphor Poems

More blank Poems

Report a Problem