Spring Rebirth

As spring bursts forth again, enjoy Jeanette Hardage’s poem below, originally entitled “April 10: For Doug,” which celebrates the growth, beauty, and hope of the season. She penned this sonnet in honor of her younger brother Doug, pictured here with a teenaged Jeanette along with their parents. The poem was first published in By Their Fruits by Ad Lib Christian Arts in 2003, then reprinted in Faith and Other Matters.

Doug

On this, your birthday, a gardenia opens one eye
to see if it is safe to come out,
like Noah’s first dove
spying out the land.

Bald cypresses have grown new hair
and flaunt it wildly in the wind.
Yesterday’s azaleas are beaten down
but display their beauty in spite of storms.

An egret negotiates the swamp, searching,
searching for that something
that will sustain her,
lifting each black stick-leg carefully.

It won’t be long before magnolias
lift pale candles heavenward
heralding the birth of new leaves.
Then the cacophony of the swamp
will fill the night air.

God’s world goes on.
Persevere.