After a Long Winter, Finding the Good: “Dwarf Iris Blessing”

Blue-violet tongues

sing, rapture swelling,

toned with plum speckles,

titanium blotches,

and yellow-flame licks,

leaves like grass,

spring’s early lawn—

a green amen.

For two months, I’ve lacked the energy to find words. Therefore, a quiet space between posts. Then the sway of daffodils gave a nod to renewal. Early this morning, the birds’ chirping sounded the urgency of spring.

It’s a familiar cycle—this awakening. Something stirs in the soil, and the air feels as light as baby’s breath.  

I remember a garden in North Carolina where a field of dwarf irises announced the turn of the season. Low to the ground, they bear a humble sovereignty—worthy of regard, as are all living things.

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A veteran of Time Inc. and Dotdash Meredith (People Inc.), Catherine Hamrick is the author of The Tears of Things: Poems (Madville Publishing).

Hamrick’s poetry has appeared in Appalachian Places, Appalachian Review, The Blue Mountain Review, The Citron Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, storySouth, and elsewhere.

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