It’s Poetry Friday!
Our friend Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
hosts us this week! Please join us!
Last week, the Nevermores crafted poems inspired by a recent Maggie Smith substack post. Smith’s prompt was built around the power of naming. We wrote of the natural world about things for which we didn’t know the names. Well, they wrote about them. I went rogue and wrote about emotions.
But the prompt has remained with me. I tried to list things I didn’t know the names of –what I see in the forest, on the hiking trails here in the moutnains, but felt uninspired (by my list, not the outdoors!).
And then the universe called…The Spiritual Journey prompt for July was “I don’t know.” Maybe it was the week or ten days of marinating, but I found a poem in my musings about things I don’lt know…my I-wonders.
I-don’t-knows
I don’t know why robins sing before dawn
then yield the field of skysong to chickadee,
junco, warbler. I wonder
if they just tire out, take it slow the rest of the day?
I don’t know why the elusive snow plant
appears in different locations every spring. But I look
for red joy in the vicinity of previous apparitions
–like St. Bernadette of the high Sierras
I don’t know if the blue flax that lights the bike path,
waving at passersby, is as happy as she seems. I aspire
to her mindfulness. I wonder
is she as graceful when only wild buckwheat watches?
I don’t know if the yearling cubs have dispersed,
if their mamas taught them well to find the early thimbleberry,
the late-wooded grubs hiding in the deep forest. I hope
they are well-fed and refrain from ambling
to town in search of trash cans
I don’t know who needs my prayers the most,
who thinks they need them the least,
but they are all included today –with the robin,
the snow plant, the flax, and all those one-year-old bears
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
Patricia Franz writes picture books and poetry. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Gosh, I love this! I love thinking about the I-don’t-knows. That’s a great prompt too.
Patricia, beautiful poem. I enjoyed reading it in this format, with the “I wonder” lines separated from the rest of the poem. That last stanza too, the honesty of:
“I don’t know who needs my prayers the most,
who thinks they need them the least,
but they are all included today”
makes me believe in prayer more somehow.
You had me at ” the field of skysong” – thank you, Patricia, for these beautiful reflections. Happy contined creating to you this summer.
Oh, that field of skysong is so lovely. And I love the huge generosity of your final stanza. Beautiful, Patricia. <3
I love to ponder what I don’t know (which is a LOT). 🙂 Your poem leaves me smiling, wondering, and, as always, questioning.
Love this so much, especially the first stanza that feels so luscious to read aloud. Your final stanza says so much about you, I think – kind and generous to all.