Dare to Care

Poetry Friday is hosted by Tabatha Yeatts today. Thanks for hosting today, Tabatha.

Butterfly

By Anna Elizabeth Bennett

With saffron sails unfurled,
A breathless butterfly
Steers out, the frailest navigation
Known upon the sky.
Embarking in the sun,
His moorings lost, an ell
Of rhododendron petals back,
He tipsies like a bell.
Against the prickly lines of air
He quivers like a star,

Read more here

When my granddaughter died, I was touched by the stories shared by members of this community of baby boys that died in their early days, weeks, months of life. This septercet is in honor of these (and those babies I don’t even know of). It’s a difficult journey, that I now can understand with more empathy.

For the Babies

For Ben, Andrew Owen, Ronnie, John Paul and Phoebe

Remembered and loved dear ones
Brothers and sons, daughter grand
holding them now in wonder

their lives with us cut too short
Today I remember them
in loss and longing and love

The recent edition of Tyger, Tyger is available online. The poems are about small things. And now submissions for poems for children about big things are open until December 31.  More information here.

Our sweet Phoebe, my granddaughter, has died after a too short life. This Sunday it will be three weeks, and I still have a hard time believing it is true. This little one we have loved for almost a year as she grew and then was born healthy and whole.

Some of you have already heard our bad news on social media. Thank you so much for all the love, thoughts, prayers, a poem, and a grief journal that have come my way. My family and I feel love and support from so many.

I had been writing the following poem all month, planning to post it this week with the Poetry Sisters . When I had written ten ways, Phoebe went into the hospital with bacterial meningitis.

Thirteen Ways to See Phoebe
After Wallace Stevens

I
Woosh! Breathing here and now

II
In the downturned lips,
a pout of strength

III
Resolute wrinkles
fill with sunrises
of promise

IV
Radiant shining one,
so bright and crimson

V
In the divided world
of 2024, a bright
granddaughter unites.

VI
The sound rises and falls
with the moon-led tide, as
she fills our hearts

VII
Quietly opens the door
to a houseful of fun
and longing

VIII
Concentrated focus—how she looks
into the world and guides me to do likewise

IX
Head held high on
an August afternoon,
a generation
of hope

X
Furrowed brow of contemplation

XI
With tubes and wires
we long for wholeness,
holding her in love as we pray and wonder

XII
With her kidneys, she
gave renewed life to two others

XIII
Gone and remembered

Irene Latham at Live Your Poem is hosting Poetry Friday today.