A Poetry Blog: Oregon Soil and Sunflowers

Oregon Soil—a poem for the blog

The Second winter ended

            With expectation of the next growing season

A surprise gift from God this home was

            Not that long ago

She discovers a passion out of no where.. only having tasted it in her

Last home.

A small box of a townhome in the Bay Area, she played with maybe six

Sunflowers planted

            Against the association’s rule

In the small patch of green in front of her home, and a few in the back.

They were beautiful, and strong with large black centers and

Golden yellow petals on a diameter of eight inches or so.

That was then.

This surprise gift from Spirit came with two acres, never ending rain, and rich soil

In the middle of the wine country , where green hills last longer than a month.

Last year, the dream of sunflowers became a small field. On a hill. So neighbors could see.

The green house collapsed after a strong windstorm last year, in early April.

The seedling needed to be rescued

So they were planted wherever they could be for their lives,

Before the trauma of the collapsed home set in.

It worked.

Such tenacity and aliveness they had, and they created joy in the valley.

That time

six became over 300

Not to stop her determination to continue the light and aliveness of these flower friend, she planted over 1000 recently.

Some lost their tops to slugs and even snow from planting

Too early.

Others are lined up in rows each morning waking up to the rising sun.

Within their sweet DNA is the possibility of growing as tall as ten or 12 feet

Sometimes she forgets which tray is which,

Preparing to be surprised and delighted at the outcome.