Category Archives: nature

Poem for Spring About Acceptance

7:15 PM

You don’t criticize a bud
because it is not yet a flower
or judge the speed of its opening
as too slow.
It is a bud,
nature in motion,
life in process.

And when petals first unfurl,
you don’t heap harsh words
on those virgin petals.
You wait with awe
and anticipation
that should all progress
according to design,
without harshness of influence
or environment—no early
frost or late freeze,
no fire or pest or disease—
that with one invisible push,
the mature bloom opens revealing
the hidden heart in all its glory.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2004

From Letting Go and New Beginnings: A Mother’s Poetic Journey

Multi-color Tulip by M D Mikus, Copyright 2013

In This Time of Corona

Ignition by Margaret Dubay Mikus, Copyright 2008

5/31/20

In This Time of Corona

This virus doesn’t have a brain
it does not choose to do anything
cannot decide to attack human beings
It is small, minimal even
its simple components do not determine
its place in the scope of things

Is it even living?
there is debate about that
It doesn’t have a Soul as we would define it
but does have a tiny spark, an energy potential
Whether it comes or goes
survives or thrives depends
on factors outside its control

subject to the whims and whispers
actions and reactions of billions of humans
It will die down, mutate
go and come again
a means to an end
An opportunity for us
to learn more about

what it means to be human.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2020

From my poetic journal. From this tiny virus what have we learned, if anything, about what it means to be human? About our inter-connection with each other? What about our relationship to nature? Thank you for traveling with me on this journey!

The Bridge

Bridge Reflection, from my Life Support Cards (TM)

9/25/20

The Bridge

Way back
I would stand on the bridge
or stand by the river
and throw petals on the water
letting my troubles float
downstream.

It was a relief
I often sought
the peace, the beauty
the soft insistent water
sometimes higher level, sometimes lower.
I no longer remember

the last time I went
or why I stopped going
why that place of solace
ceased to bring comfort
but though I still live near
I never go there.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2020

I wanted to post a poem that was not about chaotic current events, but reflection. Maybe some peace and calm.

Tulips and Grape Hyacinth, on the Bridge, from my Life Support Cards (TM)

41–“Small Hope” from “Frazzle”

Lake Geneva After Sunset by M D Mikus, Copyright 2016

“…even a pinhole of light
makes all the difference.”

From poem 41, “Small Hope” in my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/xHtFFJ5oIpg

These words seem particularly appropriate to me right now. There is the sense of tumult all over the world, and pervasive fear is a darkness I am familiar with (though for me it was more often medical stuff). It is more important than ever to remember even a small sliver of hope. We are in this together.

This poem ends the selections from 2009. Tomorrow we start 2010, an eventful year. It is still you and me, sitting at my old kitchen table. My book is open in front of me to read—originally it was the paperback, but it’s easier with the eBook (the iBooks version is the one I am using). The house is quiet. I am grateful for your company.

For more poem videos from “Frazzle”

THROWN AGAIN into the FRAZZLE MACHINE: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing

35–“Here I Am” from “Frazzle”

California Beach Seaweed by M D Mikus, Copyright 2013

“…where hard things bob up
from the ocean of minutes and it could
be just innocuous clumps of seaweed

just brush off…or it could be
a landmine adrift, set off by casual touch….”

From poem 36, “Here I Am,” in my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/LosxbOXrvyU

I wrote this poem seven years ago at a very different time, but it seems like I wrote it for today. Trying to avoid the darkness of anxiety feels very familiar. You?

For more poem videos from the “Frazzle” series