My Friends, The Flowers

I've been working on an idea for a new poetry series for a while now, but it's been taking a little time to let it come to fruition. I often use poetry as a device for processing my feelings, and expressing the deepest, most tender emotions that regular language can't find the words for, and this new project is no exception.  

Over the last couple of years, I've felt these changes coming. A tremendous tilling of the soil. It wasn't necessarily something I chose to do, but it happened nonetheless. The friendship fields, once bursting full of flowers, have been taken down to the earth again. And I'll be honest with you - it has been difficult to look out into that sea of brown, lifeless earth, just praying for the return of spring. The return of life to my once full garden.  

But as I often do, I have used this quiet, dormant winter season to reflect on seasons passed. I'm taking time to carefully replenish the soil, nurturing fragile new seeds in the hopes that they will take root and blossom into something beautiful. I've been saying goodbye to some beautiful flowers that I thought would remain in the garden forever, while also taking respite in the shade of one or two glorious trees that rooted down deep long ago and reliably grow taller year after year, reminding myself not to take for granted the ever-present companionship of their branches. 

It is hard to turn the earth, especially when you actually really loved the garden the way it was. And new growth takes time. But these poems are helping me to grieve what's gone, and perhaps more importantly, to truly nurture and appreciate each new bud that springs to life as I replant my garden. If you're tilling your soil too, or maybe just in need of a reminder to tend your garden, I invite you to read this opening poem from my new series. I hope you enjoy! 

My Friends, The Flowers 
by Bitel Beyette 

My friends 
my beautiful friends,
the flowers 
you bring so much color to my life 
some seasons growing wild
vibrant and aglow 
others dormant 
cold, and lifeless
I am always
sad 
to see you go 

I try to tend my garden well 
giving water, sun, and soil 
yet some still wilt away 
and retreat despite my toil 
the seasons come and go 
but still they take me by surprise 
watching
old beloved flowers
wither 
I miss what's right before my eyes 

new buds
and leaves spring forth 
a new season to explore 
the garden takes new shape 
​it's true
but blooms for me once more