Dandelion by Ted Kooser

The first of a year’s abundance of dandelions

is this single kernel of bright yellow

dropped on our path by the sun, sensing

that we might need some marker to help us

find our way through life, to find a path

over the snow-flattened grass that was

blade by blade unbending into green,

on a morning early in April, this happening

just at the moment I thought we were lost

and I’d stopped to look around, hoping

to see something I recognized. And there

it was, a commonplace dandelion, right

at my feet, the first to bloom, especially

yellow, as if pleased to have been the one,

chosen from all the others, to show us the way.

Dandelion

I got a new book of poetry this week! How to Love the World, edited by James Crews, a collection of poetry about gratitude and hope and love and beauty in the world. I’m excited to have a new source of poems to share with you, to shine a light on the good that exists in small but important ways.

One of the first to catch my eye is this one by Ted Kooser, a wonderful poet and the curator of the online American Life in Poetry for many years. I have always appreciated his taste in concise poems that speak volumes and this is one of his own that meets that criteria.

I haven’t yet seen many dandelions though before long they will be everywhere, that first one a single kernel of bright yellow / dropped on our path by the sun. The poet considers that we might need some marker to help us / find our way through life, after the long winter to find our way over grass blade by blade unbending into green.

Thinking we were lost and looking around, there it is, a commonplace dandelion, the first yellow bloom, as if pleased to have been the one, / chosen from all the others, to show us the way. And there it is, that common flower/weed pointing us to the renewal of life in April, reminding us that spring always arrives and that we will find our way. And yes, I know it is snowing this morning but still… it is spring!