ENTER A SUBMISSION TO PLUME

Margaret Gibson

Plume
In Praise of Transformations
In Praise of Transformations
February 22, 2025 Gibson Margaret

IN PRAISE OF TRANSFORMATIONS

 

Not always dramatic.  Often soundless.

 

As with a glass jar—
lidless, emptied, left to soak in a basin of warm water

 

which overnight turns cold,
the print-blurred
label
peeling off.

 

The word metamorphosis is grand; the process,
less so.

 

Tucked aside in curled or folded-over
green.
Sun, rain—

 

an allotted sufficiency of darkness and not-knowing,
then wings
and air, air, air.

MARGARET GIBSON, Connecticut’s State Poet Laureate (2019-2022), has published 14 books of poems, all with LSU Press, most recently DRAW ME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES.  Awards: The Lamont Selection, Melville Kane Award, Connecticut Book Award (twice). She was a Finalist for the National Book Award, 1993, and for the Poets’ Prize, 2016.  With a grant from the Academy of American Poets, she edited an anthology, Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis.  Visit her website:  MargaretGibsonPoetry.com

Plume: