

The Holland roots arrived today.
They still need to soak
before I can plant them
deep enough to grow.
What Leonora’s tears will bring
to the garden yet this Spring,
I do not yet know.
The soil is as dark as ever.
This is no reason to fear.
It does not mean it lacks
the ability to accept seeds that grow
into new ideas, new joys, new hopes
beyond our current capacity to know
what wonders in freedom’s garden
will seek light, grow upright and glow
amid the new plantings we start today,
across new paths and waterways,
across neighbors’ fields
on new roads and byways
joining the others we already know.
Together we continue to sow
new seeds of freedom, perhaps hybridized
alongside the naturalized and native plants
that make our yards, our streets,
our neighborhoods, our nation states,
our very planet come alive again
in even more fruitful and beautiful ways.
I plant with hope this day and every day.
