Butterfly's Dream

Soft on a milkweed bed
Laden with summer dew
My tiny pearl egg
Waits for sun to shine through

On this, my secret hour
Surrounded by chorion shell
Caterpillar wriggles free
Nature has cast her spell
My beautiful silken stripes

Are hidden by earth's foliage
Gauze-like cocoon I've spun
For to take sweet passage

Transformed by miracle
Emerge my gorgeous wings
Drying in fresh new air
To summer's light, I cling

Now is my time to fly
To soar from flower heads
To glide like a lullaby
Wonder about me spreads


For this particular piece of poetry, I tried to use first person, as if I was the butterfly emerging. I began writing it and trying to do it free verse, (which I think I might have liked better) I have such a fascination for butterflies and feel such a part of their path, as my area of the country is host to a big part of the Monarch's migration route in September. I have a butterfly garden and once did a video of the Monarchs in my garden with commentary for educational purposes. My experience with children from working as a kindergarten teacher's aide gives me a motivation to write a children's learning book about butterflies. It would be so great to include some poetry, as I think youth is looking for an art to explore aside from all the technology that they are exposed to.


Butterfly's Dream Flight

This bright morning, so beautiful for flight
Breezes guide softly floating tissue wings
Grasses green and inviting, flowers of oranges
and yellows cradle me for rest in between mile-long flights.

The world a quiet place, with sounds of the fields below
The wish to reach across the breadth of emotion
And softly stroke each heart with beauty
Dancing above the tiny hand of youth,
a tempting softness and innocence calling


An instinctual landing on tender bare shoulders
where peachy softness wandered on, unknowing
until the colors flashed in the corner of her
bright blue eyes of summer.

The spirit of an angel, delicately touching the wings
exhaling her entire soul into my motionless wings
More full of precious scent than any flower, a place to rest
in wonder.

The daylight softens to a dim haze and the journey
home is pending. Nectar supplies dwindling and
the need for warmth of southern skies waits ahead
But life cycle completes itself on a day when cherished beauty
flew for moments with me as the wings of youth soared

Now, in this one, again, first person, I did free verse, but what I was trying to convey is a day in the flight of a butterfly and what is encountered as this butterfly comes across a young girl. I am not sure it reads that way, but that is what I was going for...