Easy April

An interlude

If you are new to Quiet Reading, welcome, and thank you for dropping by! You may have heard good things about the unique profiles of authors and books you’ll find here. This week, we are due for something lighter.

Inspired by the forsythia, redbud, crabapple, and fruit flowers so much in evidence in my city, I send you a fair, weightless flurry.

Flowering orchard photo by Iqbal Farooz on Pexels

1. Petals

Who decides which petals
cling to the branch
this gusty afternoon

and which let go?

2. Girls

The girls who survive might be ok.
They tell each other to put down their phones
    when it is time to play karaoke
    or disclose someone's diary
    or drift in a pack to the park.

Have you heard the music of girls discovering a beetle in the bathroom,
    a spider on the wall?

3. Dandelions

I dig at dandelions
wondering what an herbalist would brew
from muscular roots,
insistent flowers.

4. Today

Words fall lightly,
a peace of white petals.

Let the hallowed day
speak for itself.

For more poetry on Substack, check out this variegated sampling:

Poetry Today

- Poetry editor for Publishers Weekly, NYU professor, and (of course!) poet

Maya C. Popa

shares a combination of original poetry and a well-curated collection of poems you’ll be glad to know.

Weirdo Poetry

- Author

Jason McBride

mixes poetry with comics.

Poetry & Made Things

-

Jody L. Collins

mixes poetry, essays on poetry, and spirituality.

Anthropocene Times

-

Saffron Morter-Laing

curates The Poetic Library (Substack authors who regularly publish poetry) here. Her original work includes poetry, fiction, and essays.

Along the Hudson

-

Justin Deming

hosts “Fifties by the Fire.” Every other Friday, his readers respond to a theme with a fifty-word story or poem. Hint: Justin welcomes newcomers.

Peace, friends.

Until next,

Tara