Easter And; a poem by Donald Levering, from Horsetail, and reprinted in Previous Lives.
It is Easter and
I'm turning the earth with my spade
spurred by the rising sun
Behind the wind and the pollen
is the sun
heating the tunnels of ants
winding the skein of geese
roughing the cheeks
of church-bound dames
Easter and
the resurrection
of girls in white dresses
Easter and the ritual
of hiding from my son
the eggs which contain
the truth about death
everlasting
And the sun eggs me on
moving my arms and my legs
to lever the shovel
that turns the earth
and turns the earth
{ ...breathes deeply... }
When I was eight years of age (Topeka, KS in the 70's was enchanting) I became aware of my first stands of horsetail at the sideline of my quest to capture and examine the crawdads I did find in the creeks there. Native to Kansas, it grows at the shoreline of creeks and other bodies of water.
This awareness and discovery is (probably) when I first fell into love with plants.
The awareness and discovery of Donald's poem resonates with me to the very core of my being . . . every, single time I put a shovel to the earth (which is, well, usually many hundreds of times per day), I am reminded.
The equisetum of which I was familiar in my youth were probably Equisetum sylvaticum (they have dark, frilly-radials at each node (like the cover art for Horsetail)).
The photo of mine above is Equisetum variegatum, which we have at our Shop (and utilize, regularly) here in Atlanta.
"Easter And"--shared here, with permission from the Author-- is reprinted in Donald Levering's book, Previous Lives, available from https://www.donaldlevering.com/shop/