“Praise for the Living” by Wendy BooydeGraaff

In February of 2023, we released our third Open Call: How might we reflect and reimagine wellness in public health as art, letters, stories and poetry? The following is a poetry submission we received from this open call.

“Mental health is linked to our environment, and while nature doesn’t magically heal us, it does offer hope in its steadiness, its constant renewal in the face of difficulty. In this poem, the speaker observes how autumn hoards for the future, and she invites the person inside to come outside and join her in hoarding the sun deep inside for when winter comes.”

Wendy BooydeGraaff

Praise for the Living

Praise for the Living
Outside, I salute the sun, arms
opening upward, grasping
energy and warmth I preserve
within. A nucleus. Why is it that
sad or ambiguous endings
ring truer than something hope-
ful, full, filled? I am warmish
now, scent-loaded with burnt
leaves and bowed flower heads
dripping seeds for spring. Stand
here with me, taste the air the birds
swing through, touch the earth’s
pulse coursing through the veins of
chrysanthemums, the irregular mulberry
jutting out into thin blue, the greedy
clematis covering the crab tree,
the sludge-filled worms, the orderly ants,
the mottled stones, and yes,
you.