Elizabeth Gordon 

Elizabeth Surlin Gordon lives in Evanston, just a few steps from the main library. Happily retired, she loves travel, musicals, writing fiction, poetry, and the EvanZen column for Our Evanston magazine, and – most of all -- doting on her two young grandsons.

Chubby fledgling hands claw at the dirt

that my seasoned knobby fingers shake

into the red clay pot.

Now comes the seed—tiny but full of potential,

just like its farmer. Dig deep! Pat pat pat! 

It must fuse with fertile soil and 

Take root, grow tall, sway and dance

in the sun, drink in nourishment, 

beam out exuberance and joy, all 

Before withering to leave us seeds 

that know how to dance and beam.