Checkout POETRY TOWN by George Bigere & Art selections by Merry Bilgere https://www.georgebilgere.com/poetry-town

 

Welcome to poet George Bilgere’s online newsletter. Every day George selects a poem by a writer he’s crazy about and he says a few words about why he picked it.

Here’s a poem for today, October 11, 2024

What Did You Imagine Would Grow?

by AE Hines

Before you, I never grew anything. Never looked at the unbroken ground and imagined what might sprout there, that I could coax my own sustenance from the earth.   I never dislodged the pebbles of dry clay, and the miracle of food appeared on my table from the downtown Safeway. The flowers, orchids, all made of silk.   Before you, there was no garden. No cherry tomatoes, no peonies or roses, no sweet-smelling melons swelling on the ground. You had your tricks for getting the most from the soil, the way a saint pulls the best from a soul.   Before you, my dear, no one bothered. No one had the patience. No one stood staring at the thin rocky soil of me, never walked up and down my barren rows, rubbing dirt between his fingers, asking himself: What shall I plant here? What precisely will grow?   AE Hines is the author of Adam in the Garden, Charlotte Lit Press, 2024.   Image: Detail from Madonna of the Pomegranate, by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1487.

Why I Chose This Poem This poem made me look at love in a new way. I’d always thought I was the farmer, looking for the right soil to plant in. I’d never thought of myself as the soil that someone else was eyeing, sizing up. Thinking about making a bid on. It’s a lovely thought.