“Rely on Mystery” by Meg Freer

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Rely on Mystery” by Meg Freer, which first appeared in Poetry Pause in May 2020.


Rely on Mystery

By Meg Freer

A single milkweed plant has sprung
from seeds scattered last fall.
I almost fancy myself a gardener,
except that so much potential
died with those plants that didnโ€™t grow.

A door left open says โ€œforgivenโ€,
the only word not worn away
from the top of a gravestone
where sumacโ€™s summer green
reveals the art of dying.


Copyright ยฉ Meg Freer

First appeared in Poetry Pause in May 2020.

Meg Freer grew up in Missoula, Montana, and now lives in Kingston, where she writes and enjoys the outdoors year-round. She has two music degrees as well as a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing with Distinction from Humber School of Writers. She is a member of the Ontario Poetry Society and the League of Canadian Poets and freelances as a first reader, proofreader and copyeditor for individuals as well as for literary journals. She has published three poetry chapbooks: Serve the Sorrowing World with Joy, with Chantel Lavoie, (Woodpecker Lane Press, 2020), A Man of Integrity (Alien Buddha Press, 2022), and Still Life Waiting: Notes on a Ghost Town (Wild Dog Press, 2024). Her prose, photos, and poems have been published in many journals.


Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!