Poetry Summer 2013

On Leaving

by Shelley Schmidt

Leave, leave, so many times

We have had to Leave:

Homes, schools, friends,

Countries, towns, books, toys, a special friend;

“Old junk”: no one understands why we want it;

Drawings, pets, a favorite bike or doll,

A beautiful place, a special smell, familiar food,

A thoughtful caretaker, loving parents.

Leave, leave, Leaving behind,

(so often, over and over through the years)

Leaves little rips as we pull away,

Leaving a piece of our numbing heart behind.

How many times did we have to

Leave all we knew to be familiar, and

GO—to yet another unknown place?

How many times did we say “Good-bye”?

What did we do, in our hearts, with the cry?

The One who never changes left His Father’s throne above

And promises to stay by our side.

I Am a Leaf

by Hannah Schmidt

There is the ocean, the sky, the tree:

Each knows its purpose and its place.

I am a leaf who floats on the wind,

With no place yet to land.

If I land in this place, the wind

Strong as it is, forces me up

Through currents of air,

Takes me to lands unknown.

The grasses I meet stay rooted,

Curious why I must move.

They stay and grow deep,

Expecting, like them, I’ll root.

But—a leaf—I float!

I may have come from a tree,

But I cannot go back to the tree and stay:

My life is the wind and I go where it goes.

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt