Grass
February Poetry Adventure Day 3
quiet beneath the snow sleeps the grass what dreams does it dream in the darkness? wind rustler, light catcher, sun drinker, green in its growing russet in its blooming golden in its seeding brown in its dying tenacious holder of beachheads dune-anchor, wave-defier invader of sidewalk cracks destroyer of pavements borderstalker, marginwalker opportunist pioneer squatter, colonizer ready to fill any crevice or foothold, spaces abandoned or neglected even rooftops and raingutters wave its bold banners shelter of rabbit nests protector of fledgling birds, of box turtles and toads shivering with cricketsong hunting ground of mantises highway for ants byway for beetles scaffolding for spiders warp and weft for nest builders stems bent and twined to form frames, rafters and rooftrees, trusses and beams river hugger streamsweeper bank-bower shore-shader food for grazers laying itself down as a soft bed for the weary and shield for the wary who would hide in its thickness kind friend to barefoot children who roll and tumble on springy mats dance and run on soft green carpets lounge and lunge with sticks and swords flowing over and across its gentle blades blankets spread on lawns crowded with dandelions, buttercups clover, violets, creeping charlie pitch camps in the shade where leaves are soft and cool and sweet
Grasses of Massachusetts:
beachgrass dunegrass salt grass saltmarsh cordgrass saltmeadow cordgrass bluestem black grass panic grass switch grass poverty dropseed prairie dropseed purple lovegrass bunch grass red fescue wavy hairgrass yellow plumegrass bluejoint reedgrass bentgrass field meadow foxtail sweetgrass long-awned woodgrass fringed brome cheat brome tufted lovegrass
To read more Grass poems check out the comments at Petra’s Poetry Adventure post:
Beautiful. And to think so many just want it to be green and short; so much potential missed. Grasses in flower and seed are magical, every bit as good as ‘flowers’.
How do I love thee, grass? Let me count the ways. This is such a gorgeous meditation on our yard's humblest and most essential growing thing.