(Marija M/Unsplash)

Digging dandelions summer by summer—
I regard them, hundreds by now, thousands,
but my work doesn’t do any good, our yard the same
as when I started, steely roots clutching earth.

In the Desert Sayings, a monk weaves baskets
day after day, and every year gathers
them into a pile he consigns to flames,
the weaving more about his hands
forming mantras than any useful work.

Published in the July/August 2022 issue: View Contents
Topics
Poetry

Jerry Harp has published four collections of poems, most recently Spirit Under Construction (2017). His poems appeared or are forthcoming in Boulevard, december, the Cincinnati Review, Hubbub, the Kenyon Review, Image, the Iowa Review, Pleiades, and elsewhere. Among his other work is the prose study For Us, What Music? The Life and Poetry of Donald Justice (2010). He teaches at Lewis & Clark College.

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