In celebration of National Poetry Month, I am inviting several poet friends to join me in my daily endeavor of paying poetic attention to the world. This week I am sharing the practice with my dear friend Maya Stein, poet of The Creativity Caravan. Maya is one of the most generous writers/teachers/humans I know. Follow her on Instagram at @mayastein, and check out her #100day project for daily doses of wit and inspiration.

green comes back.
we take pictures of our feet,
our boots in the dear muddy earth.
which by the way is burning.
ashes to ashes.
then green comes back: it’s relentless,
we thought it was endless
but scientists tell us
just 60 more harvests
before there’s no more soil.
hold still while i stand here.
i mean, ashes, ashes,
we all fall down
we take pictues of our feet.
put a pin in a place,
say we were here for a second
on this dear muddy earth.
dear mother may i.
ashes to ashes,
then green comes back.
we all fall down.
we remember
we’re standing on a planet.
on our dear muddy earth.
dust to dust, and all that.
oh mother may i,
oh mother, take us back.
.
(bow to Marie Howe for the beautiful line “dear muddy earth”. bow to the scientists, for telling the truth.)

photo and poem by katherine ferrier ©2017

Imagine, for a moment,
your name in lights.
Imagine the kerning of the letters,
the particular tilt of the font,
the way a stranger might walk
out from a disappointing haircut,
the reckoning with the tax man,
the first date gone sadly sour,
look up to see the blaze of syllables,
and consider, for a moment,
the lovely shape of their own
consonants, the geography of vowels,
and say to themselves,
I’m almost there. I’m so close
I can see it.

photo and poem by Maya Stein ©2017