The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Showing Up No Matter What Else Happens~ By Charlene Langfur

7/23/2020

0 Comments

 
These days I plan out the smallest tasks
as if they are mammoth ones, end-alls, crucial
and critical pieces of a whole life.
I’ve been potting the aloe plants in the rain
in the deep desert winter,
out walking my 13-pound honey colored dog
early in the morning before work, walking past
the giant palm trees and the black crows
flying high over us in tandem, soaring with the wind,
heading for the mountains covered with snow.
And I am planning what is next on paper,
a sketch of what to grow next in my little garden,
calendula for healing, the yellow flower heads
look like little suns early in the morning.
And I add orange nasturtiums, the petals fiery with
passion. My dog and I collect the flower petals when
they fall and we save them in cups so we can throw them
out over the sand and the wild grass when we are walking.
I think this will help me celebrate abundance
when it comes my way. My dog leaps alongside me at midday
as we walk along the canyon’s edge. I try to imitate
her because it looks like an act of pure happiness.
We grow older together practicing the same
acts of happiness I’ve always known how to keep an eye
out for. Walking and smiling. A gay woman in a life
without a partner, working part time jobs, reading novels
and drawing pictures of my garden, #2 pencils in hand,
in the picture are sunflowers taller than I imagined
they could be. In the garden, I’m planning for more,
small violets, pure purple petals, a deeper color than last
years. Soon there will be more.
Sunflowers the color of the moon.
 

Author Bio:
Charlene Langfur is an an organic gardener, a rescued dog advocate, and a Syracuse University Graduate Writing Fellowship. Her most recent publications include a series of poems in TIGER MOTH, POETRY LEAVES, GYROSCOPE and forthcoming a series of poems in WEBER-THE CONTEMPORARY WEST and EMERYS.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Our newest batch of works are in response to recent world events ~ thoughts, feelings, experiences

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org