The Westport Art Group is having an in-person gallery show in its beautiful space, marking a slow re-emergence into public life. The theme, appropriately enough, is “Renewal.” For the first time, members of the WAG Poetry Group offered copies of their work to be included in the show. They hang in the lobby where a more intimate atmosphere allows a guest to stand quietly, read, then sit and ponder the words. The gallery is of course more visually enticing, with over 40 works vying for attention.

Of my three poems gracing those walls, I share one here called “Rebirth.”

REBIRTH

Connections grow slowly
where you cannot see
the alchemy of souls

interweaving their words
of love and despair,
of hunger and joy

rooting themselves within
one another as tangled vines
mingle stalk and leaf

the new sprung from the old
dancing step-in and let-go, sprouts
from the nodes of prior years’ blooms

splitting in new directions
even as our roots spring
from shared soil.

swb