Poem 30

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