Note (Poem)

Today’s poem is written by our guest author, Tyler. This poem’s imagery completely envelops me, a mental vacation. I hope you can read this poem while sipping in some of the evening’s sunbeams.

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Note

by Tyler Mortensen-Hayes

• • •

—Have you noticed, friends, how amazing it is
that a sunflower contains itself inside
itself, like somebody you love but could never touch;
how it allows itself, come fall, to turn brown
& droop into nothing, though not before spitting
out the miraculous little clusters of sunlight
that have hardened into its seeds, spreading
over the damp garden where congregations of birds
& squirrels & my own two hands gobble them up,
filling with the nourishment of something that,
just weeks ago, did not even exist; & sometime later
all of those seeds—forgive me for mentioning it—
spill out & rejoin everything that remains uneaten
& buried, under leaves or wet earth, waiting the whole long
hazy winter until, clever things, they grow into sunflowers,
& how impossible to witness this again & again,
year after year, & to always take part, always eating
& growing from what rises so softly, so wordlessly,
from the earth, how lucky we are, dearest friends, to be here.

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Tyler is a poet, located in Salt Lake City, a bustling place known for its erratic climate and proximity to vast wildernesses. He once had a friend who told him, “You poets take the weather so personally!” in which Tyler thought–”Why yes, don’t you?”

Faith

Faith is poem that’s a part of the Sister Series, a series of celebrating individual women and sharing their beauty through poetry.

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Faith

by Regan Smith

• • •

When all others see only a mirage, 
Faith sees the whole vision–
and oh what a joy she brings, 
being able to have full confidence
in the land that is ahead. 

In this vision, there is a valley 
encompassed by mountains, 
and with each foot’s step, 
there is a vantage point of glory. 

This is the land that’s been promised to her, 
and she shares it with me now, too. 

While this whole land was made 
with her specifically in mind, 
her favorite space is a field of sunflowers;
together they radiate their praises. 

Today, Faith is content and confident. 
She will share her vision with others, and 
with each word she speaks, she plants the seed
of faith and hope; their awakening grows, 

and another sunflower is added to her field.

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