"listen" by barbara crooker

i want to tell you something

this morning is bright after all the steady rain

and every iris, peony, rose opens its mouth, rejoicing

i want to say wake up, open your eyes, there's a snow-covered

road ahead, a field of blankness, a sheet of paper, an empty screen

even the smallest insects are singing, vibrating their entire bodies,

tiny violins of longing and desire

we were made for song

i cannot tell you what a prayer is, but i can take the breath of the 

meadow into my mouth and i can release it for the leaves' green need

i want to tell you your life is a blue coal, a slice of orange in the mouth,

cut hay in the nostrils

the cardinal's read song dances in your blood

look, every month the moon blossoms into a peony, then 

shrinks to a sliver of garlic

and then it blooms again