The Sunflower Seed: A poem for Seasons of Waiting

 

 

                The seed waits under the soil. She sleeps a great deal.

                She cannot feel the sunlight- only darkness, and heavy, cold earth.

                “Will I die?” she wonders, “How long will it take?”

 

                The seed remembers the sunlight, from a younger, brighter year,

                All she ever wanted was to bask in its warm glow.

                But then she was pressed into the soil.

 

                 And now, down here in the dark,

                She thinks, “Maybe I’ve been forgotten.”

                “Maybe I’ll never feel the sunlight again.”

 

                The rain seeps through the earth-

                What a blow! It is bitterly cold!

                “I didn’t want the frigid rain! I wanted the sunshine!”

 

                And then comes the day when her shell begins to ache.

                “Oh, it hurts! I am cracking! I am breaking all over!          

                So this is how I die. The sunlight has forgotten me.”

 

                But she does not die.

                A sprout has grown from the seed,

    and roots spread out far below her.

 

    The sprout grows up and up and up

    Until she, no longer a seed, bursts forth from the brown, cool soil-

    And there, there…..is the sunlight, shining in all its glory!

 

    Now she grows higher, ever closer to her beloved sun.

    And her love for the sunlight brings forth

    Her very own bright yellow flower- a reflection of the sun itself.     

Sunflowers are a topic I frequently refer back to in my writing. Today's poem was about seasons of waiting, those times when we believe God has placed us on a shelf and is through with us, but in reality, He is using the waiting season to bring us closer to His will for our lives. I wrote a completely different blog post over 10 years ago, to process the grief of my Grandfather's death.   https://mymotherthinksimagoodwriter.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-about-sunflowers.html