Published 29 Jul 2020
Poems for Contemplation: "Showy Sunflower"
Poet Ruth Goring illuminates the life of a sunflower in this offering from our Summer 2020 Poetry Series.
By Ruth GoringA blog post Women Scholars and Professionals
This summer The Well is featuring a series of poems by women. Before reading her poem below, you might enjoy reading Ruth Goring's invitation to approach poems curiously and meditatively.
Showy Sunflower
(Helianthus rigidus)
Wait here quietlyas stalks climbbefore your eyesinto exuberant height,as if sucking the moisture& nitrogen of your wholeyard’s soil. Test the groundeach morning; walk on tiptoe,whispering. Leavesgrow long, slightly serrated,in spiraled steps. Wait, waitthrough insistent greenness,sudden appearance ofspiky-fisted buds; prayproliferation, give thankswhen first yellow fringes sproutaround hearts porous & brown. And thenit’s a matter of remembering to breathe as petals openlike fingers, burst into small but emphaticshouts, golden trumpet blasts,banners unfurling againstbluest sky, ecstaticspeech that tosses & leansin winds of Septemberlike your mouth saying Oh, oh,unable to contain its clean& delirious song.
Photo by Olia Gozha from StockSnap.
Ruth Goring is a poet (Soap Is Political; Yellow Doors), writer-illustrator for children (Picturing God; Adriana’s Angels), and manuscript editor (University of Chicago Press). She has also worked at InterVarsity Press and served in campus ministry. She grew up in Colombia and is besotted with the Spanish language. Find her at ruthgoringbooks.com.