Ode to a Forsythia

Recalling the Bush That Burned for Me -

 And How the Defining Year of My Life

Was Characterized by Chastisement

Revised for Rev. Nicolas Giannatosia

Pastor, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church

U

Three decades since

I first beheld you here,

I have been chided,

Counseled

In my ways:

The loss of those I loved,

And penance paid

Have filled enough

A coffin with my days

And now,

I plainly see

The vital root

That elevates a blood

Into my leaves,

And grows out of a grace

In greater things;

And from that grace,

Its miracle receives

I know your brothers well -

I know the trees

And how a strange foreboding

Often fills a mind with

Queer amazement

And a fear,

When it is set before them in the hills

I sometimes have defied your lesson there,

When doubt denied me access unto you;

Rebelling 

Not in words,

But all in deeds,

And choosing comfort

Over what is true

And thus, I kneel before you in my shame,

As you bleed sacred yellow with the sun

And wait upon Your blessing

Or the blade

Until death

Or renewal is begun.