spring reading: poems for June

fireflies, bruised blossoms and garden shears. poems by Robert Frost, Alice Walker, Saskia Hamilton and Brenda Shaughnessy.

Jun 04, 2024

Fireflies in the Garden - Robert Frost

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies
That, though they never equal stars in size
(And they were never really stars at heart),
Achieve at times a very starlike start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

Desire - Alice Walker

My desire
is always the same; wherever Life
deposits me:
I want to stick my toe
& soon my whole body
into the water.
I want to shake out a fat broom
& sweep dried leaves
bruised blossoms
dead insects
& dust.
I want to grow
something.
It seems impossible that desire
can sometimes transform into devotion;
but this has happened.
And that is how I’ve survived:
how the hole
I carefully tended
in the garden of my heart
grew a heart
to fill it.

Listen - Saskia Hamilton

The shaded window.
Voices from the garden rose to
the room and soon the green blanket
soothed you. The phone rang. A door
closed. No one turning
down the gravel path, no one
taking up the garden shears.

The Dessert I Didn’t Have - Brenda Shaughnessy

Grilled peaches on shortbread with raspberries and black pepper ice cream.
We’re all out, said the communicative waiter.
That was twelve years ago.

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