So many orphaned sorrows,
I gather the castoffs,
pluck stories by root,
dirt clotted,
waterlogged.
Old tears still bloom
with dark, thickened flowers.
In the potting shed I ease them
one by one
into terracotta bassinets.
Pack soil round tight,
to keep them from weeding out
into the garden proper,
before their time.
From the window, half-light,
slips between the shelving slats
trips over spiderwebs and drip trays.
Safety among the looming gloom,
safe from the unearthing grief.
Tonight’s poetics challenge was to take a line from Paul Dunbar’s The Paradox, and to build a poem around it. My choice was “I am the mother of sorrows; I am the ender of grief;” which has led to this rather odd piece.
Carol J Forrester 
Hooked me from the first line. Resonates, Carol. Well written
Thank you.
Welcome!
Spring in the potting shed and the shed tears –
“Old tears still bloom
with dark, thickened flowers”
the opening line is tremendous and I love where this prompt took you
Thank you Laura. It stumped me for a bit, but eventually I found a way into the prompt. Some of the DVerse challenges can be tricky at first glance.
🌹
This is absolutely fantastic, Carol! I love; “Old tears still bloom with dark, thickened flowers.”💝💝
Thank you. 🙂
Cultivating “terracotta bassinets” of “orphaned sorrows” great word combinations.
Thank you.
You’re welcome.
Easing them into terracotta bassinets… just lovely.
I’m glad you think so.
So beautiful and stunning.
Thank you very much.
This is quite lovely, Carol.
Thank you.
So much more to this poem than first appears… really beautiful…
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Great work with the prompt: taking those ‘orphaned sorrows’ and shielding them from grief within the sheltering earth!
Thank you Ingrid.
This is engaging Carol. Well written!
Thank you Rob.
The Dunbar quote gleams gently in your lines, Carol, and I love how you save the orphaned sorrows and castoffs and ease them into terracotta bassinets. These lines made me smile:
‘From the window, half-light,
slips between the shelving slats
trips over spiderwebs and drip trays.’
Thank you Kim. I’m looking forward to Spring getting here and getting into my greenhouse.
Carol, I often like to pick some particular lines to highlight my appreciation of when I comment on other people’s poems, but I simply couldn’t this time. I was hooked from start to finish.
Yours,
David
Thank you. It’s nice to hear I hit the mark all the way through.
I really like the metaphor of potting plants.. it works really well, and I think of gathering the castoffs to blow new life into those roots… maybe there is a spring also for sorrows.
Thank you Bjorn. I think I’m overly keen for Spring to get here so I can get out in my garden and sort through all my plant pots.
nice garden with beautiful words, it’s a fantastic poem of garden of woe
Thank you.
💐.. thanks for sharing with us
Well done, Carol!