somehow a seed of belief sprouts

Christian Wiman (1966- ) has been the editor of Poetry magazine for the last 10 years and will be stepping down at the end of June. Here’s to the little weedy hardy would-be greenness of this day–and every day.

“When the Time’s Toxins”

When the time’s toxins
have seeped into every cell

and like a salted plot
from which all rain, all green, are gone

I and life are leached
of meaning

somehow a seed
of belief

sprouts the instant
I acknowledge it:

little weedy hardy would-be
greenness

tugged upward
by light

while deep within
roots like talons

are taking hold again
of this our only earth.

from Every Riven Thing

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