This concludes my endeavour to write a poem a day for the month of April. This final poem tries to capture my surprised delight at having succeeded.
How can it be that
Almost every time I reach into the dark
Velvet bag of my heart
I pull out some treasure
A shiny bit of sapphire
A rock that needs polishing and then becomes
sparkling pyrite
(I dare not call it gold)
Have I been carrying this bag all year
Strings tied tight
To keep the light out
or keep the light in
A greedy dragon
asleep upon his hoard?
Asleep until one whispered dare-
“Reach in-just once a day
Tell us what you find”
For whatever reason-
Some combination of foolishness and belief
I have reached in
that first day I drew my hand out full
That second day, a different prize
The third, the fourth and most days the same
Some days I cannot find the velvet bag
It is under the bed or my eyes have gone foggy
Some days I have to root around, fingertips scratching at the bottom
But always, in the end, a treasure
Who imagined the unbidden could be bidden?
Now the season passes into summer
Slow and savoury
Now the questions gather
Maybe this season has taught me that
Nothing wanes or waxes but the reaching
Photo by Nousnou Iwasaki for Unsplash