Meditation
March colors stain
perfumed air—
pink tulip magnolia,
ivory dogwood, fuchsia azalea.
Abundance blossoming
in a dark arch of rain.
Within this wet darkening
cries an unseen blessing.
In every hidden bird singing
dies my every word.
*
Getting Older
I am becoming a dappled thing.
Silver threads my hair,
dark spots dot my body
like a speckled egg.
Floaters cloud my vision,
meandering opaque grey
in the tiny sky of my eyes.
My ears ring with a song of demise.
A great poet (immortal)
once praised this color palette—
mottled, rose-stippled,
time’s upstream beauty of change.
I can seed a pieced field
with one odd word.
I feed on instinct, on dream.
I am spare and strange.
*
Julia Caroline Knowlton PhD MFA is the author of five books. Recognition for her poetry includes an Academy of American Poets College Prize and a 2018 Georgia Author of the Year award. She is also a nominee for a 2022 Georgia Author of the Year award. KELSAY BOOKS will publish her third chapbook, LIFE OF THE MIND, in 2023. Julia teaches French and Creative Writing at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta.
Oh such a beautiful conversation with Gerard! I had such a sweet ping of recognition in the first line, and then something like joy washed through as there were other pied weavings … such a gift to me this morning, thank you for this smile on my face that twines with the tenor of loss in your poem … such a poignant coupled coloring …
Thank you Rosemerry! I am so happy that my poem reached out in this way…! Julia