you are
the needle within the crown
you are
the sharp hair in a coating hoar frost
you are
a beak’s beaten sawdust on the floor
you are
the pine’s pollen cast on a spring wind
you are
the robin egg held safe in a nest
you are
a shadow cool on sweat dripping day
you are
an acorn plucked from an oaken harvest
you are
a leaf breaking red autumn’s surrender
you are
the footprint bronzed on a worn path
you are
the forest within this tree.

∞

Submitted as part of “National/Global Poetry Writing Month” (#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo).

Today’s prompt: Day Six: Our prompt yesterday asked you to take inspiration from another poem, and today’s continues in the same vein. This prompt, which comes from Holly Lyn Walrath, is pretty simple. As she explains it here: “Go to a book you love. Find a short line that strikes you. Make that line the title of your poem. Write a poem inspired by the line. Then, after you’ve finished, change the title completely.”

Author’s Note: I went to my favourite novel, A.S. Byatt’s Possession, committed to choosing the first line I’d find in her book, which begins: “These things are there. The garden and the tree ….” I hope you enjoy the metaphor that evolved.