January 2021
Joan Leotta
joanleotta@gmail.com
Bio Note: I love writing about small things. My work has been published in many journals, including the Peacock Journal in 2019, which was the first home for these poems. Even though the holidays are upon us, January is a time of real hope, a chance to start again. My birthday comes in January, which emphasizes that whole begin anew theme for me. These poems offer hope and deal with how to stay strong, even when we are weak things, feathers, when confronted with the stone of the world.

Lilies of the Valley

Lilies of the Valley—
small white bells
whose fragrance ascends
to God with puff and huff
of spring’s new breath.
They grew abundantly in
Grandma’s rock garden
among her hosta
on the shady side of her porch.
That very first spring day
when grandma brought
her glider out of winter storage
I would stand on the cushions,
climb over the iron
railing , carefully
lower myself and crouch among
those tiny nodding bells to
fill my lungs and soul with their
aroma of hope.
Originally published in Peacock Journal

Feather to Stone

You see me as a feather,
as I ride the breeze
down to you, gently
swaying. 
You say you
do not even feel me
when I land on your heart, 
softly.
Your hardness 
deflects my tiny
self.
When breeze calls again,
I float away, weeping for you.
You cannot move. 
Your stone self is
stuck 
in equally hard earth, 
incapable 
of understanding that  my 
very softness,
my lightness, is my
strength. 
You are forgiven.
Originally published in Peacock Journal
©2021 Joan Leotta
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