Verdant

     The pandemic has not troubled nature. The lawns are newly green, the trees have budded well, the seedlings are sprouting, the pollen is flying. When we stay home the air is cleaner and the plants are happier.

     Theodore Roethke grew up familiar with flora, working in his father's large greenhouse. He grew up to become a poet whose work was rich with the imagery of green things. The greenhouse is "my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth," he wrote. Were he around right now, Roethke might have found quarantine less distressing than most people, sequestered with his cuttings and blossoms.
     Here's one of Roethke's best-known poems, "The Waking," offered to all who currently "wake to sleep, and take (their) waking slow."