Green Hearts

New leaves are spiking outside my kitchen window,
pale, delicate, unfurling from a bare aspen like tiny scrolls.

Underneath it long fingers of iris have pushed up
from bulbs hiding in the moist mystery of earth.

Another sign, yesterday I saw yellow forsythia
sprung out from a tangle of branches in the garden.

At the sink I stand in awe, no words for these gifts,
I who have also felt the broken will of the body,

been lost in the dark, uncertain alleys of the mind.
Even in my unsteady hand, when I hold up

this clean glass to a beam of light, it reflects back
through the window an offering of green hearts.

I consider my poetry writing a meditative practice in itself in that I do my writing alone in a quiet place. For years I have begun my day by journaling. Observing and contemplating the natural world where I live is also a great inspiration for my writing. Also, I have been a yoga practitioner for over 20 years, which has enabled me to center and focus my words.

Beth Paulson lives in Ouray County, Colorado, where she teaches workshops, leads Poetica, a monthly workshop for area writers, and co-directs the Open Bard Poetry Series. She formerly taught English at California State University Los Angeles for 22 years. Her poems have been published nationally in over two hundred journals and anthologies and have four times been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Her published books include The Truth About Thunder (Ponderosa Press, 2001), The Company of Trees (Ponderosa Press, 2004), Wild Raspberries (Plain View Press, 2009), and Canyon Notes (Mount Sneffels Press, 2012). Beth’s fifth collection, Immensity, was published in 2016 by Kelsay Books.