little birds

Toad Redux

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

A week or so ago I posted a collage-style poem, “The Song of the Toad and the Little Birds.”  Toads seem to be lurking their way into my work of late.  Here’s a sequel, or perhaps a Part II:

The toad squats
behind the poem
of the little birds

Underneath its tongue
is a red jasper
and its name is Patience

It is listening for the sound
of the sound of your name
in the falling rain
in the sound of a car
turning the corner

It is listening for your heartbeat
as you wait to be born

If you look closely enough
you will see the thin golden chain
around its left wrist

If you wait
you will hear a sigh
like the settling
of a leaf
in the grass.

 

Gratitude List:
1.  Feeling energized by the work of the day
2.  Toads
3.  Dragonstone
4.  Balance and paradox
5.  Layers of meaning
May we walk in beauty.

Toad visiting the Faerie house, Summer 2009

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The Song of the Toad and the Little Birds

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

I am playing around with throwing some random pieces together to see how they fit.  This is a collage I will likely cut apart again and re-formulate at another time.  Perhaps.  Unless it seems to live as I live with it a little.

This is the blank page, the tabula rasa
the cloudless blue sky waiting to see
how the weather will fill it.
Sleep shrouding sense
muted and whispering.
This is the field in the springtime
ready for planting.

I cannot tell you everything.
I cannot tell you anything.
How can I be more explicit?
You disturbed the bee at her labor.
Your dreams broke the silence
of my garden.

We do not come this day bearing flowers.
We do not come this day singing songs of victory.
Weaving our silence
Bearing our candles
These are the gates we will enter
Bearing the weight of the war in our eyes.

What is the job of this poem?
So many things conspire to keep me asleep.
The heart is the vessel of response
not the information-gatherer.

There it is.
There it is again.
Coming back to the story
–always–
of the toad and the little birds.
Glittering.  Hard and cold.
Be watchful.  Be bold.

 

Gratitude List:
1.  There was a dairy farmer “who loved the land and his animals, and took very good care of them. . . .  He was a loving person with a very kind heart.”  For his kind heart and the gentle daughter he raised.
2.  For the beautiful Pequea Valley and a fierce wind to scour the worries away.
3.  For the silent and tricksy activism of my husband.  I cannot tell you what it is, for then it would no longer be his silent revolution.  Just know that behind the scenes he is making the world a better place for us all.  (No, he is not the real Banksy.)
4.  For the serious and earnest nature of my people, for their singing, their love of conversation, their care of the bereaved.  You sit in a Mennonite funeral and you can smell the food cooking downstairs and you know that everyone will be taken care of.
5.  For love, because we can love each other even when we don’t agree.  Because when it comes down to it, love is really what we need.

Much love.  So much love.

“Oh look!” said Joss.  “Roxanne [the car] has a mustache!”

2013 March 060