In recognition of Poetry Month, and to celebrate our treasure trove of Orcas Island poets, Orcas Issues is pleased and honored to offer daily poetry during April.
Ordinary Joys
All afternoon –
We worked in the garden
While the tulip petals fell
Beneath the crabapple snow
In that corner by the red rose-tree
Where the iris never bloom – not ever.
In the yard –
Iron dragonflies
Protect their plans behind iron eyes,
While wooly thyme waits breathlessly
To be trodden, to endow the idle air
With nostalgia and myrrh.
Across the field –
The old apple trees
Gossip of bees, humming old melodies
In their petticoats of pink and white
Never minding the words are long forgotten.
I want to remember –
Those songs; this afternoon;
These ordinary joys – that pour over me
Drenching my eyes, filling my shoes
With the waltzes of home
Where the dancers may change
But the tune endures.
© K.A. Wood
(italicized words from a poem by Peter Pereira)
