Stafford: ‘Resilience’

 Here’s the opening of Kim Stafford’s poem “Resilience”:

Is resilience being strong

as iron, or perennial as grass?

Is resilience standing fast

in storms, or seeking to understand

how old trees, deep-rooted, bend?

 

Stafford says that grass and old trees don’t win. They may be trampled on or blown around. In contests with other forces, they don’t win — they prevail.

I like that image. It reminds me that though this country’s democracy is going through dark times, it rests on countless ordinary people who love self-rule. It will take a while before the hard blow passes. But when it does, I believe the old tree with deep roots will still be standing. 

• Source and notes: Kim Stafford, As the Sky Begins to Change; Pasadena, Calif.: Red Hen Press, 2024, p. 16.