April Poetry: Ordinary Joys

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)