Todd Edward Anderson

Let May flower though it turns our hearts
Toward th’incessant earth
In search of beauty
In search of striving
Because we too are striving
Though we don’t see
Though we pretend not to see
The ground with worms writhing
A thousand May-born flies
The ruminations of dappled coastland moors
Above all the striving whispers of unharnessed wind
In search and never finding home
But on through dry and moist air rising
Since it cannot tire
It tangles hickory
Ruffs crested feathers and bill
While at marsh-end Swallow trill
Enthroned on swaying bulrush

Let it flower and rest your joy
In the unhurried earth
Long years waiting for a reckoning
As mastering man sews curse on curse
Sweat and breath sewn and raised together
Because we too are striving
Because even in the garden
When the earth had not yet learned to strive
Since we had not yet plucked
And scarred the tree
Because it recoiled at our touch
Though we were not as such filled with violence
In search of immortality
But since the waiting and the striving go on
Palaverating creeks run their mouths
And run to their mouths
And spread over the earth the poison of man
Because man’s searching leaves no thing untouched
Despite which the soil endures

Let it flower despite these
Because another striving
Summons place to place
And time to time
Time striving for place
And place searching for its time
The divine search for resurrection
That purer striving for home
Because He too is striving
Let May flower since it turns His heart
Toward the restless earth

Todd Anderson (Stuff of the Rind, Sand and Sail, The Reluctant Prophet) writes the newsletter Mirth to share a behind-the-scenes look at his writing process as well as to offer readers the first fruits of his poetry and reflections. He grew up in the forests of small-town Ontario, contending against nature in all its beauty and harshness.  His training as a literary scholar of Latin and English literature inflects his love of poignant turns of phrase, but it is the influence of his family and their myriad adventures together that infuses his story-telling and poetry with its substance and power.  Todd lives and writes in Ottawa with his wife and six children. If you are interested in supporting Todd’s work, please follow the links below to donate or buy his books.