Poetry Sundays: Short Roots

2014 was a tough year for many Mormon feminists. While there were some great positive changes in the Church, for me, they did not outweigh the hard truths I’ve witnessed.  I’ve found comfort in looking to Mormon women of older generations as spiritual role models than I have lately. Women who have weathered storms like the ERA and the 1990’s excommunications of feminists and intellectuals, women who have created their own spiritual paths in and out of the Church.

I’ve loved this poem by Carol Lynn Pearson in particular lately. This past year, I’ve felt so thirsty as I ponder my place in the Church and my own spiritual path.

“Short Roots”
by Carol Lynn Pearson

The tree
At the church next door to me
Turned up its roots and died.
They had tried
To brace its leaning
But it lowered
And lowered,
And then there it lay–
Leaves in grass
And matter roots in air,
Like a loafer on a summer day.

“Look there,”
Said the gardener,
“Short roots–all the growth went up–
Big branches–short roots.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Too much water.
This tree had it too good.
It never had to hunt for drink.”

Especially in thirsty times,
My memory steps outside
And looks at the tree
At the church next door to me
That turned up its roots and died.

 

The Growing Season. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1976