It was my next door neighbour Sara who had the crocuses in her garden. I’m not much of a gardener (and by not much, I mean not at all, if I’m honest). I’ve been hopeful of course, I appreciate a beautifully tended garden, so a few times I’ve tried to be good at it. But I just don’t tend soil as well as I tend other things, like my children, or a good book.
But I appreciate the beauty and perhaps my gardening skill is to tend words in such a way that beauty lingers to help us reach for Spring’s rebirth. It’s the early day of Lent, a reflective season given to us to tend the inner soil of our lives. May these coming weeks leading up to Easter allow us time to turn the soil, readying it for what will be gifted to us.
One Crocus
On the day
© 2020 Laurel Archer
when the air felt friendly
and your head lifted
to hear the joy return
in bird song. You came home,
pulled into the driveway, looked
and like a miracle
in the very centre
of your ordinary lawn,
one single crocus
sang its purple song
past the cold silence
that lingered months long
grey and slate brown;
yet always willing
to let go and make room
for beauty
sweet and new.
