Overheard in a Field of Daylilies

For the past several days, I have been searching for a book of poetry that seems to have vanished into thin air. I've looked everywhere and am now at the point of looking in kitchen cabinets and crawling around on the floor! It seems I've looked for it everywhere except for where it is. The book in question is Thirst by Mary Oliver. Our back yard is full of wildflowers, and I wanted to be inspired, for Mary Oliver and I perceive life through the same lens. However, since the book remains in hiding, I decided to write my own poem about the daylilies that currently dominate the landscape.

Overheard in a Field of Daylilies

Whispered the daylily:

Do not pity me for having

but one, brief day to bloom.

It is the blooming, not the longevity

that matters, and I have been

practicing all my life to feel

the darkness surrender

to color and light

and know this is the day,

and I am unstoppable

and ready to seize it,

To feel the sensation

of sepals and petals opening

together, little by little

then curling backward

into a perfect poem

of shape and color

and sending

from the secret center

a slender pistil

and six delicate filaments

donning gold-dusted slippers,

To announce without words:

Here I am, full and ripe

with pollen and nectar!

Come to me; let's dance

the dance of life together

and make this day count.

Dear human, your rhythm

falls somewhere in between

that of trees and flowers.

Do not pity me

for my brief moment of glory.

Truthfully, can you say

you have bloomed

so unabashedly in all your

years?

-Susan Meyer

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