"Minding" by Terri Lynn Cummings

Minding

Terri Lynn Cummings

Just as the heat

of late summer

causes my potted plants

to wilt

and shed leaves and petals,

I go to my garden

of words

to pluck dull poems—

once blooming

but now weeping

with life’s insults—

and fertilize worn soil

hoping the next seeds 

I sow take root 

and blossom for good

Poet’s Notes:  What writer does not have reams of discarded work waiting for redemption? In the heat of late August, my potted plants wilt, shed leaves and petals, just like poems on my computer. How fun it was to metaphor a garden to a poem!