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| Photo Credit: fineartamerica.com |
Have you seen a monarch this summer? I haven't and I miss them. I read in "The Record" newspaper this week that the monarch butterfly population is dwindling greatly and that it's likely because weed killers are destroying the milkweed plants necessary for their survival. Environmentalists are planting milkweed in the hope of saving the butterflies and increasing their population again.
My poem, "There Used to be Butterflies in New Jersey" follows. It is one of my earliest poems, a true recollection of a day, probably around 1977, when hundreds of monarchs surprised us by suddenly appearing on Cupsaw Lake beach in Ringwood, NJ.
Let us hope we will see God's fanciful and beautiful winged creations fill the air with "tangerine profusion" again.
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| Photo Credit: wired.com
There
Used To Be Butterflies in New Jersey
I remember the day
the monarchs held court
on Cupsaw Beach
And filled the air
with tangerine profusion
As they soared and
danced
with natural
choreography.
There used to be
butterflies in New Jersey.
They haven’t left
completely,
But I see fewer every
year
And miss their
lilting frivolity,
color and grace.
Today, I strolled a
lane in South Carolina,
And was gifted with
more species than I know,
The sum greater than
I’ve seen in years.
Praise God,
they simply filled my
heart with joy
As they danced with
gay abandon
among the
wildflowers.
They flitted against
the sky with petal-soft wings
As resplendent in hew
as the blooms
They landed
momentarily upon, then sprang
Into fanciful
Fantasia pirouettes.
Maude Carolan
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