This is post #2 relating to my personal poetry challenge for the month of April to write one haiku per day inspired by my native plant garden.

I have decided to post my poems for every day after chatting about it with two poets whom I admire very much, Laura Salas and Liz Scanlon Laura said something that I think is going to stick with me a long time, not just about poetry but about all writing. She said, “I work from a place of abundance.” Isn’t that just the best attitude? I also decided if I am going to talk about being brave, I need to be 100% brave and not just a little bit brave.

The inspiration for this poem came to me while I was outside watering a few of the newest plants in the garden. I was thinking about how happy it made me, when planting, to finally see worms in the dirt. When we first moved here the soil was so dead that we had no worms, (at least up high) no insect life in the ground at all (that we could see.) And I was thinking about the importance of worms, especially in this San Jose clay and how they churn up the dirt and leave these wonderful tunnels behind that help disburse the water underground. (They also leave worm poop behind and that’s another great thing for the garden.)

So this time the last line came to me first.

worms do all the work

And then I was stuck.

water water everywhere
even native plants need drinks
thirsty plants need water soon
roots wait for something to drink
thirsty roots cling to dry clay
water to the thirsty roots
bring water to thirsty roots

bring water to thirsty roots

And then the first line popped right into my head

underground tunnels

Which gave me a final poem of:

Worms
underground tunnels
bring water to thirsty roots
worms do all the work

@copyright Susan Taylor Brown
April 2, 2009