March 2017
Barbara Crooker
bcrooker@ix.netcom.com
bcrooker@ix.netcom.com
I live and write in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, and am happy to say we didn’t end up having to move. My roots grow deeper here each year, and my garden flourishes. bcrooker@ptd.net
The Rose Villanelle
Everywhere I've lived I've planted roses
and though we've moved a lot, the roses stay.
Who knows what man disposes?
I've bled from thorny scratches on my toes.
One way or other, you pay.
Everywhere I've lived I've planted roses.
I dig the earth in awkward poses.
Planting for others makes me say—
I do not know how man disposes.
Peace, Proud Land, & Crimson Glory grow
in other yards. I do not get to stay
anywhere. I've lived; I've planted roses.
Sun-blind blue sky, the mocking crows
reflect the lack of heart I have today.
I do not know what that man proposes.
And I have shut my eyes; the rows
of green might just as well be gray.
Everywhere, I've lived. I've planted roses.
And man proposes, yes, and man disposes.
-from Barbara Crooker: Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2015)
Everywhere I've lived I've planted roses
and though we've moved a lot, the roses stay.
Who knows what man disposes?
I've bled from thorny scratches on my toes.
One way or other, you pay.
Everywhere I've lived I've planted roses.
I dig the earth in awkward poses.
Planting for others makes me say—
I do not know how man disposes.
Peace, Proud Land, & Crimson Glory grow
in other yards. I do not get to stay
anywhere. I've lived; I've planted roses.
Sun-blind blue sky, the mocking crows
reflect the lack of heart I have today.
I do not know what that man proposes.
And I have shut my eyes; the rows
of green might just as well be gray.
Everywhere, I've lived. I've planted roses.
And man proposes, yes, and man disposes.
-from Barbara Crooker: Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2015)
©2017 Barbara Crooker
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