OUR TORN ROOTS ARE ALIVE
The sweet Elysium
laced with geranium
in the dug-up yard
caught me by surprise
all morning
working in the garage
sawing and sanding
an easel for my daughter
eight hundred miles
away. I realized when I stepped
into the backyard,
into the flowers, that she
could smell lilac, hung with swallowtails,
and stringers of honeysuckle slung along a fence
just as I breathed these scents
that got in! I received them and
send them to her
held in the same wind’s hand that blows
across these dunes
so when she
opens them simply
by breathing, she’ll remember
our ancient
name.
— Gene Berson, 2005
Poetry Garden
I am thinking of the lilac-trees,
That shook their purple plumes,
And when the sash was open,
Shed fragrance through the room.
~ Anna S. Stephens
