Nature's Daughter

This poem was written in response to the Rattle® Poetry Ekphrastic Challenge for April 2025 and was ultimately not selected. You can find more information here.

https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/

Nature’s Daughter

My heart’s true love is forever for a girl

Whose only love, is the natural world

Bound to the bosom of Nature, her mother

The love that she has can’t be given to another

-

Her touch is gentle and her soul is kind

Her laughter bubbles and sharp is her mind

The warmth of her smile is a kiss from the sun

And when she smiles at me, my soul comes undone

-

The branches of the willow sway long as hair

But to her locks in the wind, they could not compare

The eyes of the owl are large and bright

But her eyes hold the moon and all of starlight

-

A meadow full of songbirds, with their melodies sweet

But the sound of her voice sweeps me off my feet

An oak in its majesty, she stands with grace

With delicate skin, soft as Queen-Anne’s Lace

-

Just to hold her hand, how happy I’d be

I’d give everything I had if she’d marry me

So I’ll petition the mountains for permission of her hand

I’d even dig the diamond myself from the dirt of the land

-

But an old worn-out bachelor, forever single I’ll be

For the one that I love will never love me

So I pray to the Lord that my body he takes

Like he fashioned Adam, my flesh he remakes

-

To a deer in the forest, a dragonfly on the wing

A trout in the river or a bullfrog that sings

Reborn with feathers or as a yellow honeybee

Then maybe my love will finally love me

Submitted under MRB