Featured Poem: The Nature of Waiting

Jenny Santana
Iowa City Branch

 

I sit

on a park bench

quiet and still

watching the ants

scurry hurriedly along the pavement

and above me

the sparrows fly

puncturing the sky

like liberated darts 

while the monarch butterflies

bounce and weave

on circuitous routes

and wistful bees

perch upon

flowers’ buds

trembling in the air

until

a breeze comes by

and lifts them

haphazardly

away.

Beneath the shifting daylight

of a cloud-speckled sky

as the world turns

with ferocious

velocity

 

I sit

motionless

waiting

for you

to love me.  

 

9 comments

  1. Karen Morris says:

    Perfect title, and the excellent details of the busyness of nature contrast so well with the poem’s ending.

  2. Suellen Zima says:

    I love the connection of simplicity, depth, and longing. The last part makes it more powerful and deep, leading the reader to wonder where the desired love will come from.

  3. sara etgen-baker says:

    I appreciate your imagery and the gentle intensity that leads to “waiting for you to love me.” I felt a wee bit sad at the end. Thanks for sharing.

  4. Mary Joan Meagher, Minnesota Branch says:

    A beautiful, true poem filled with delightful visual imagerage. It contained a sense of place and a moment in time. Thank you for publishing this poem. Jowy Santana has included universality and her own personal life experience. Excellent choice of title as well.

  5. Jenny, I love this. I love the way the images build, one upon the other, until they climax in the “ferocious velocity” of the spinning earth, only to collide with the final thought, giving it profound presence. This is a powerfully wrought poem! Thanks for sharing.

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