Belong

You can’t fly a kite without strings But you can watch it spread its wings Soar and dip, gently fall Swoop high over the garden wall You can watch her spread wings Your love was just an offering Leaning there on the garden wall You let go of all you are Your love was just an offering Like a nightingale song, or a church bell’s ring Yet letting go of all you are Something slowly fills your heart A nightingale song, a church bell’s ring We can’t hold on to anything But let the star-wind fill your heart And with open hands, belong ©️ Nichole Liza Q., August 2020

*One night, while searching for inspiration for a submission to my monthly poetry group**, I paused to meditate on the Jess Franks calendar that hangs by my bed. Butterflies have been on my heart a lot lately, but it was her two line poem that really caught my attention. BAM! Suddenly the spring opened and there I was at 2:00 a.m. scribbling away. Jess’s art is great example of how inspired creativity is like a mountain spring, or a deep well, a gift that keeps on giving.  **As part of our poetry group prompt for August, this poem loosely follows a form known as Pantoum, a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.