Two Poems by Bill Griffin

Sherbet

Looks like orange sherbet says the lady next to Mom
at the senior center, women choosing colors
for their Easter decorations, little puddles
of acrylic paint on paper plates to fill
the outlines on wooden eggs they might hang
from their doors.

Maybe this Sunday
Linda and I will see dogwoods and redbuds
blooming in tandem along the highway and say
as we do every year, Vanilla ice cream
and raspberry sherbet! but this afternoon
Mom doesn’t remember what a redbud is.

How many times have I told this story,
kid in the backseat with Mom and Dad
while they Ooh! and Aah! and I can’t figure out
what they’re talking about, where is the Red,
where is the Bud?

and how often
will I repeat this one, almost to the exit off I-40
and Mom not understanding when I point
over there, and there! pale lavender punctuating
winter gray, until at last her eyes open
and I hear her murmur, How pretty.

 

Linebreak

You can’t step into the same river twice.
– Heraclitus

Although leafing through my notebook
it becomes apparent
you can write the same poem
any number of times:

turn of phrase that twists
to dodge cliché; judicious little dab
of alliteration like mustard
in hopes that someone

will taste its spiciness
only then to fear
they may not be fond of mustard;
scratching out a word used twice

but returning to favorites,
this week discover, cherish;
can the language ferry us
where we want to go

and just where might that be, anyway?
Today I favor Greg Corso: You can’t
step into the same river once.

Chaos theory, process philosophy,
infinite complexity, entropy –
let’s lay them all down
right here at the linebreak:

the point is not to get across,
the point is to feel the current.

 

Bill Griffin lives in the foothills of North Carolina and has become a full-time naturalist since retiring as a small town family physician. In his poetry, blog and essays, Ihe gravitates toward themes of ecology, community and the search for meaning. He features Southern poets at his weekly blog Verse & Image, with special posts throughout April to celebrate Earth Day. Of his many publications, he is most proud of the eco-poetry collection Snake Den Ridge, a Bestiary, set in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and illustrated by his spouse, Linda French Griffin.