Milkweed Pods by Susan Windle

Dear Friends ~

The first week has passed: seven days of living in the shadow of this new reality: President-Elect Donald Trump. For many of us this has been a week of mourning, a kind of Shiva. I have done my share of weeping. And raging, even as I followed my newsfeeds closely—watching for dangers, searching for beacons. Finding both.

Nature, as always, helps. Also friendship, time well-spent with beloveds, and song, poetry and prayer, with careful attention to all that is beautiful and brave.

As we make our connections and find our ways through the darkness, perhaps a new poem, born of this season, can help. I offer it with love:

Making America Great
(Song After the Election of Donald Trump)

“Come, dear one, let us go out into the field…there I will give you my love.” (Song of Songs, 7:12-13)

Stay with me a while
in the field where the milkweed
and tall thistle divest
with perfect grace.
There are blessings in these
burgeoning clouds and the luminous
bronze lining of the pods
split open, naked in loss:
mouths full of stars.

Such hopes we had this year!
Let us give them to the autumn winds.

Stand with me here
in sorrow and in fear, in this field
of all belonging. See—
our neighbors, the oaks, pines, maples,
enduring, long-time, many-storied
friends. They have no prayers
but this: Forest!
Can you hear them sighing?
Can you feel the strength
of their breathing
for us, the people, many-colored
beloveds, who may
one day soon become
a country, one nation
where true magnificence
is born?

November 11, 2016

We will need the strength of trees and the resilience of meadows to build an army of peaceful resisters. May we each receive what is offered and give all we can.

Ever yours~

Susan

PS: Want to write with me at The Cedars House in the Wissahickon woods or at Big Blue Marble Books in Mt. Airy? See the Upcoming Events on this page and contact me for more information.