birches know

by Jan Mordenski

that everything works both ways,

that sun-dried mornings lead

to moon-damp nights, that silent

snows engender songful days,

that rooting deep and latching on

is what can bring them strength,

enable them to weather

the winter’s tattering winds,

that keeping a diary

somewhere deep within

is what, years from now,

can chronicle a history, ring true,

that reaching out, stretching high,

is what can allow them to touch

the frayed fringes of the sky,

the opened palms of the stars.

Jan Mordenski is a writer and trained folklorist from Michigan who has had poems published in Canada, Ireland, England, Australia and Singapore, as well as in the U.S. in publications like Poet Lore, Comstock Review, Arete, and Worcester Review; on-line, poems can be found on Ravens Perch, Eunoia, Hamilton Stone Review and Bluebird Word. “Crochet” was also selected as part of Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry.  Mordenski is also founding editor of Quadra-Project, a calendar of art and literature that is now available on-line.