Riddle of the Seeker by Beverly Burch

Riddle of the Seeker

How to love a blooming orchard 

if you won’t eat its sour apples. 

To ask for scented roses if you hate 

the shit it feeds on. You know a pond streaked 

with moonlight hides a skirt of pea-green scum. 

October sun warms your hands 

while it curls and yellows these pages. 

Like poems that go wrong before 

you finish them. Where were you headed

the lines tried to follow. You came 

to a dead end. Or an indifferent door 

to revelation. What does perfection feel like

and how many are its flaws. How do you love 

a God if you can’t stand His disciples. 

Beverly Burch’s third collection, Latter Days of Eve won the John Ciardi Poetry Prize. Her books have won the Lambda Literary Award, Gival Poetry Prize, been a finalist for the Audre Lorde and Housatonic Book Awards. Work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, New England Review, Willow Springs, Tinderbox, Mudlark, Barrow Street. www.beverlyburch.com