Witch Hazel
I stand observing
and reflecting before
a delicate shrub
with tiny pink blossoms
I brought a long way
from the garden
of my great-grandparents
and planted in the center
of a dense circle
of lily of the valley
to remind me of
where I came from
and who I am.
As the pain in my
side pulses from
the incision the surgeon
made to remove
tissue that may have
exploded in growth
and choked off my life
I turn and find myself
face to face with
a profusion of mint-
green lamb-soft
leaves unfurling
in morning sun
to reveal on
the inside, as they
open, yellow-green
waxy furrows
holding droplets of
rain from the night
and beside these
miracles of new
life behold tiny
clusters of copper
and red blossoms
wound so perfectly
together they seem
beyond the creative
capacity of the finest
medieval jeweler ever
to live in this world
where when one thing
is about to die
another even more
beautiful is born.
Norbert Krapf, Indiana Poet Laureate 2008-10, has published nine poetry collections, the most recent last year from Indiana Univ. Press, Songs in Sepia and Black and White. This year American Dreams: Border Crossings, seven prose poem cycles, will appear from Mongrel Empire Press. Norbert taught for 34 years at Long Island University, where he directed the C.W. Post Poetry Center. As Indiana Poet Laureate, he stressed the reunion of poetry and music and held a 2011-12 Creative Renewal Fellowship to combine poetry and blues from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, where he has lived since 2004. He was a featured reader at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival last year.