Hitchhikers on the Wind

It starts with an ephemeral puff
of delicate seed-heads in a child’s hand,
waiting for the wind, hitchhikers
free to take sunshine wherever they land.

A dandelion may start life
as a fragile seed, a tickle in a downy clock
a drifter on a breeze,
but it can crumble paving stones and rock

and, before you know it,
suddenly a thousand golden faces appear,
granted wishes from every
puffball blown by children year on year,

and romantic grown-ups too,
star-gazers like me and you.

Kim M. Russell, 22nd April 2020

Image found on Pexels, CC0 License, free for personal and commercial use, no attribution required

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads NaPoWriMo Day 22 Play it Again in April 2020: Poets of April

On Sunday, April 22, 2018, Susie offered us inspiration from poets born in April, quotations accompanied by images.

The challenge is to let the quotations lead to poetry, writing in any form or no form at all.

As I’m merging this prompt with Kerry’s Skylover Wordlist, sourced from Dylan Thomas’s poetry collection Deaths and Entrances, from which the twenty-second  word is ‘seed’, I had to choose the quotation from William Jay Smith: “ A fresh and vigorous weed, always renewed and renewing, it will cut its wondrous way through rubbish and rubble.”.

21 thoughts on “Hitchhikers on the Wind”

  1. and, before you know it,
    suddenly a thousand golden faces appear

    I love this moment in your poem! Everything about the piece is wonderful, and I especially love the quote you chose.

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  2. This is absolutely beautiful, Kim! 😍😍 I love; “suddenly a thousand golden faces appear,” and the fact that it applies to romantic people like us who wish upon them! 💝🌳

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  3. LOVE your poem Kim – it’s oh so lyrical and just perfect – but then, I think Dandelions are just perfection! Absolute. Delight.
    so let us continue to wish, dream and blow the puffs!

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  4. Beautiful, Kim. I too love those “thousand golden faces,” watching us and they watching us.
    Dandelions were the first bouquets that I picked. Followed by purple violets. And like most kids loved blowing the dandelion seeds into the breezes.
    ..

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  7. My sweetest Kim, you’ve made me smile twice today. I never thought of myself as a romantic stargazer, but… if after reading your reasoning, I totally am!

    And I love the second stanza, the way it looks like the stunning threat.

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  12. LOVE it Kim! Most especially the last 6 lines. I must admit, on our walk today, I saw the first two dandelions of the spring season for me, on a condo lawn across the river where we walk, and I just grinned and pleased as a little kid, said to my husband, “Look! Dandelions!” I’ve never thought of them as weeds. My dad sure did though! 🙂

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