Work With the Risen Green

Pea Vines in early spring at Hoganvillaea Farm.


THE OMENS ARRIVE IX. April 26, 2015

Work with the risen green.  It’s the only way
to sustain hope.  You, my friend, are quiet,
yet not far away.  The new moon’s sliver holds
you close, a bright planet in the spring sky.  I
know you want me to fight against this harm 
our huge electric company proposes.  To learn
of this Machiavellian plot to destroy whole
communities is to say nay.  No coal ash in
our water, air, poisoning our lives, our animals,
our gardens and farms.  How do we keep our
hope healthy and green?  Consider the pea vines,
their tentacles waving, reaching, “looking”
for any string or stem they can cling to, climb.
Consider the infant carrots.  Their first two
tiny blades have given way to feathery leaves–
nearly invisible.  They will be big, fat, and strong
in no time.  The onions and leeks that looked
half dead when they arrived in the mail, are
rising green and hardy.  The thyme and oregano
beds, once weeded, fling themselves over
new territory.  The fig leaves pop out of limbs
that looked so dead.  And I?  These people
who have gathered around trust me.  If I
tell them to work and hope, they will.  They do.
My own hope springs from a mysterious
source, deeper even than my Muse, from
that core the dragon once guarded, that inner
circling sun I released for service years
ago.  I know how to risk all.  I’ve 
penetrated fear and dread, kept despair away
for years. Why?  Because it’s how I’m
made and why I’m loved.

***

Hands Across Our Land.  Protest Against Fracking, Gas Pipe Lines, and Coal Ash Dumping, Moncure, NC. August 18, 2015.