Daffodils and Grief – a poem by Nancy Jentsch

Daffodils and Grief

In our snow-globe spring
daffodils cower—face to ground,
trumpets muted, stems brittle—
eager for equinox
and to dance
fancy as music-box ballerinas
in sun’s ballroom.

We too turn from grief—
our poses frozen,
voices pale, nearly broken—
forage for warmth to bathe
blankened faces, then wait,
wait to unfold—limber
again— in the wind of days.

Since beginning to write in 2008, Nancy Jentsch‘s work has appeared in journals such as Still: The Journal and Braided Way. In 2020, she received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the resulting collection, Between the Rows, debuted in 2022. Her current writing project involves reinvestigating genealogical information she unearthed in the pre-computer 1980s. She has retired after 37 years of teaching and finds a bounty of inspiration in her family and her rural home.