Monday, April 20, 2009

confined

Confined

Fawn lilies, pale in the shadows of trees, open their throats

and call the bees. Bees, drunk with sleep and winter,

stagger from the hive. The hive hums with its own morning.

Spring caresses the forest lightly. If you hurry, you will see nothing

but the dark still-sleeping trunks of trees. But stop. Place your ear

to the trunk and listen. Sap thrums in its veins, singing

to the buds who hum softly as they gather their new leaves

to unfurl. And in a spot of branch-filtered sun, the first

mourning cloak butterfly fans slow wings among the fallen leaves.

You might mistake it for one of them if you didn't pause and look.

But I cannot look. Confined indoors, I miss the birthday

of the forest: the doe, licking her newborn, pressing

with her nose to balance it as it wobbles toward

its first breakfast. Picture me longing, aching; see me imagining

instead of watching, as, stepping among the white lilies

that bear its name, in a moment never to be repeated,

the newborn fawn takes its fleeting first steps.

Mary Stebbins Taitt

for Keith

090419-1153-1c; 090418-1916-1st completed draft

The fawn in the composit is by Berrybird. The word layout is by Wordle (from my poem). I took the trees and the fawn lily and made the composit. For Creative Every Day.

9 comments:

Sherry Goodloe said...

Nice . . . very nice :)

Sharon P Pope said...

Love the picture and the writing. :)

The Mini Mum said...

This is very cool. Such a beautiful piece of poetry, matched perfectly with the image.

Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers said...

This is the first time I've seen your blog, Mary. I love these writing and image combinations you do.
Janice.

Tabitha the KnittingJourneyman said...

your work is just amazing-thank you

Leah said...

beautiful, mary!! love the picture you did with it too.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Thank you so much Sherry, Sharon, Mousey, Wildwood, Janice, Knitting and Leah! You are all so kind and sweet!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

WOW! Thank you all for all your wonderful KIND comments! Thank you!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

OH, one of you I could not locate to comment back--please, if you read this, let me know how to find you.