Editor’s Note: I have tried and failed many times to tame the earth’s green, to be the arbiter of which kind of green prevails. Daffodils, yes. Dandelions, no. Despite my interventions, the shoots keep shooting, wanted or not, the season’s “green will” joyously asserting itself across my yard.
Fearless by Tim Seibles
for Moombi
Good to see the green world
undiscouraged, the green fire
bounding back every spring, and beyond
the tyranny of thumbs, the weeds
and other co-conspiring green genes
ganging up, breaking in,
despite small shears and kill-mowers,
ground gougers, seed-eaters.
Here they come, sudden as graffiti
not there and then there—
naked, unhumble, unrequitedly green—
growing as if they would be trees
on any unmanned patch of earth,
any sidewalk cracked, crooning
between ties on lonesome railroad tracks.
And moss, the shyest green citizen
anywhere, tiptoeing the trunk
in the damp shade of an oak.
Clear a quick swatch of dirt
and come back sooner than later
to find the green friends moved in:
their pitched tents, the first bright
leaves hitched to the sun, new roots
tuning the subterranean flavors,
chlorophyll setting a feast of light.
Is it possible to be so glad?
The shoots rising in spite of every plot
against them. Every chemical stupidity,
every burned field, every better
home & garden finally overrun
by the green will, the green greenness
of green things growing greener.
The mad Earth publishing
Her many million murmuring
unsaids. Look
how the shade pours
from the big branches—the ground,
the good ground, pubic
and sweet. The trees—who
are they? Their stillness, that
long silence, the never
running away.
Tim Seibles was born in Philadelphia in 1955. He received a BA from Southern Methodist University in 1977, after which he taught English at the high school level for 10 years. He received an MFA from Vermont College in 1990. Seibles is the author of seven poetry collections including Voodoo Libretto: New & Selected Poems (Etruscan Press, 2022); and One Turn Around the Sun (Etruscan Press, 2017). He was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award and a winner of both the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Poetry. His poem “Fearless” appeared in Buffalo Head Solos. Reprinted with permission of the author.
Cassie Johnson says
How I loved this poem! Such joy in the color, the boldness, the shyness, the unrepentant aggression, resilience and sweetness of the green life. I’m looking at it all outside my window with new eyes.
Thank you!
Deidra Greenleaf Allan says
Yes, it really captures the insuppressability (not sure if this is a real word) of spring. No matter what’s happening in our lives or in the world, the grass, weeds, and new leaves refuse to be denied!
Suzanne Todd says
So many different producers of green and so many different green shades. Amazing!
Deidra Greenleaf Allan says
Yes, he really captured it, didn’t he?
Sharron Cassavant says
Marvelous — in concept, in execution. Thank you.
Deidra Greenleaf Allan says
Yes, he really captures the ebullience of the season, doesn’t he?
Carin Starr says
Thank you for keeping poetry alive in the Spy. There is power and beauty in poetry’s expression.
Deidra Greenleaf Allan says
Thank you for being a thoughtful and appreciative reader!