Resilience
Is it a bird that, battered by storms,
rises again to soar on strong wings?
Is it a beast of burden – an ox, say –
that rests at the end of the day
to recover its strength and resume?
Is it, perhaps, a sliding, zig-zagging snake
moving through grass unseen, at speed?
Or a tough lizard with hard skin
who can freeze to invisibility, then dart …
or shed its trapped tail, only to grow a new one?
Does it even describe me, still here after all?
Does it describe humanity? And is that good?
I like to think it will be our planet
long after the batterings, the burdens,
the need for speed and hiding,
and maybe our very selves, are well gone.
Image © Sharyn Williams 2014. This is the cover illustration for one of my e-chapbooks and must not be reproduced without permission. I thought it a good illustration for this poem too.
The poem is written in response to Poets United's Midweek Motif: Resilience.
Resilience is there for me in all your images Rosemary and I think the pic image of the soaring bird speaks of hope.
ReplyDeleteI was particularly moved by the ox. Beast of burden is such a wonderful term. An old phrase that still has such power.
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