The Spring I Waited for the Dogwood to Bloom

Becoming a poet

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

The Spring I Waited for the Dogwood to Bloom


Every day that spring
I watched 
Every morning
I walked out
my white robe trailing 
across the wooden boards
Splinters scratched 
the soles of my feet
My hands wrapped 
around a mug of coffee
steaming in the still cool air

I had come to the woods
to cocoon myself in green brush
and gray thunderclouds
as if in a room of my own
I could become
someone else deliberately

I waited 
for the lime-green blossoms to appear
the petals to unfold
toward the warming sun
The flowers faded to white
painting the forest 
in eyelet lace

When I emerged 
the dogwood blossoms had fallen
green leaves covered
the thin branches
I was only myself
yet softened by mornings 

I stood still enough
patient for once in my life
to see a dogwood tree bloom

Susan Browne has a poem in her latest book Monster Mash titled “Becoming a Poet.” Her poem inspired me to explore that moment when I became a poet. I wrote about a trip I took to England with my parents when I was twenty and driving to Wales and Tintern Abbey. I was inspired by Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” which I had studied in a class. I realized as I was writing, however, that that moment wasn’t when I became a poet—that it was the three months I lived among the dogwood trees in East Texas one winter into spring.

I posted “The Spring I Waited for the Dogwood to Bloom” last year on April 7, 2024.¹ It was my third post and I had seventeen subscribers. I decided to repost this because I was so struck by the recent realization that it was living among the dogwood trees that made me a poet. Thank you for indulging me.

My book Gathering the Pieces of Days has been out in the world for almost a month! Last night I had a reading at the C. G. Jung Institute in San Francisco. I’ve edited the Jung Journal since 2007 so this was a reading with mostly colleagues, and they made it into a celebration, with hors d'oeuvres, opera cake, and champagne. It meant so much. I am so grateful for the people I work with and the work I do. You can get my book from Unsolicited Press, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.

1. “The Spring I Waited for the Dogwood to Bloom” was first published in Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, Spring 2021.