Mish here welcoming you into the pub for Open Link Night! As most of you know, this is your opportunity to link up ONE poem for our reading pleasure. There is no particular form or theme required. If you’d like, you can write to a prompt you may have missed this past week.

In my region, June 1st feels like a gate has been opened wide for summer to run freely. We no longer fear the risk of frost and it’s finally time for flip flops and lemonade! We just returned from a trip further north to visit family and relax in a cozy cottage in the woods. It was a tranquil setting, minus the mosquitos. A shallow creek ran through the property and after crossing over a tattered bridge, we followed an enchanting trail through towering ferns and white and pink trilliums. The white trillium is the provincial flower of Ontario and official floral emblem. They bloom in earlier Spring but even slightly wilted, they were a joy to see and appreciate.

A few other facts about trilliums…

*They are very slow growing plants, taking up to ten years to reach flowering size. After their first flower, they will bloom annually for about three weeks.

*Trilliums are a favourite food of the white-tailed deer.

*North America’s Indigenous peoples used trillium roots for treating open wounds, inflammation and during childbirth.

*Trilliums have also been referred to as “wakerobins”, since the flowers appear before the robins.

Mary Oliver seemed to find solace in the presence of trilliums and other lovely things of Spring.

Trilliums by Mary Oliver

‘Every spring
among
the ambiguities
of childhood

the hillsides grew white
with the wild trilliums.
I believed in the world.
Oh, I wanted

to be easy
in the peopled kingdoms,
to take my place there,
but there was none

that I could find
shaped like me.
So I entered
through the tender buds,

I crossed the cold creek,
my backbone
and my thin white shoulders
unfolding and stretching.

From the time of snow-melt,
when the creek roared
and the mud slid
and the seeds cracked,

I listened to the earth-talk.
the root-wrangle,
the arguments of energy,
the dreams lying

just under the surface,
the rising,
becoming
at the last moment

flaring and luminous –
the patient parable
of every spring and hillside
year after difficult year.

So dear poets, share a poem of your choice. Here’s how to join in:

• Write a poem in and post it to your blog.
• Enter your name and direct link to your poem into Mr. Linky.
• You will also find some other amazing poems. Please read and comment.
• Link back to dVerse so others can find us too!
• Drop in to say hello in our discussion below.
• Have fun!

Images: Michelle Beauchamp