I wrote this poem, Waiting for You, in gratitude. For the beauty of nature that inspires me every day. For the joy of writing. For the remarkable simplicity of loving someone special for a long time. As I wrote in the introduction of my poetry book, Silver Tip, I aspire to choose my words carefully and thoughtfully. Whittle and shape the poem down to its bones. Convey as many meanings as possible, for myself, for you, and at the same time, keep it simple and unpretentious.
Waiting for You is also about how quickly things change. A bud in the spring opens, flowers in the summer, drops its leaves in the fall, goes dormant in winter, and then begins again. Seasons come; seasons go. The average human life is about 4,000 weeks. Some have more. Some have less. Waiting for You is about living as fully as possible in however many weeks I am given and never forgetting to tell those I love how much I truly love them.
Waiting for You
In a moment, it came to me
the robin sings all her mornings
the Sitka spruce holds its roots deep
the river flows to the sea
the wild rose blooms
even if I do not see it
in a twinkling of the eye, I suddenly
see more clearly than I ever have
as the Northern Lights open against
the dark sky, there one moment
gone the next, fleeting,
astonishing wonder
long ago, I remember waiting for you
emptied of light, sprawled
on my face, still as a corpse, smelling
the rich loamy earth
listening to a chickadee chirp
in the branch of a tree, waiting
for the earth to ooze up, bring me home
I was young then, waiting for sunsets
and wafer-thin stones to skip twelve times
across the blue water before sinking
under the surface, waiting for heat-rippled
beaches, a hundred migrating geese
before walking toward a cliff
there below, a black bear
sitting alone, turned slowly,
looked me in the eye
sniffed the breeze
encouraged me to lift my eagle wings
and soar; it was then that I saw
more clearly than I ever had
the robin will sing
the tree will hold
the river will flow
the wild rose will bloom
and in this dying world,
if I go first
I will once again
wait for you
Enjoy the Passage of Time.
Sharon
© 2025. Sharon Kreider. All Rights Reserved.
