The Bloom & The Hummingbird

In a Garden Soft & Green

Lay the brightest bloom I e’er have see

Upon a bed of moss and ferns

Her beauty so plain to see

Round the garden did I trod

Wandering hither, thither and in awe

Of an emerald hummingbird

The smallest I ever saw

He flitted and he fluttered by

Sampling all the roses

But when he came to the bloom I spied

He was all but stopped, frozen

He inched e’er closer to that heavenly bloom

A pilgrim in the face of the Spirit’s Loom

Quaking, quivering, tenderly sipped

From the mouth of the flower

As from a woman’s lips

There in the garden he did stay,

Leaving only at the close of day

To rest his weary wings and heart

To sup of golden nectar at next day’s start

Each day I came to the Garden there,

Watching the green gilded bird

And Behold, the bloom sprang everywhere

A flower lasting as the Word

Then one day, I looked to find

In peaceful repose, where I stood

That poor, poor, hummingbird

Far from his homey wood

So ‘neath the bloom, I laid to rest

The Bird, that gave to his flower the best

No even so, no flight for nectar

He still is there, in spirit, protector

And never once, in snow or other weather

Did that precious die or wither

Till this day, it still is there

So too, must I go, a hummingbird to his flower

This poem was inspired by one of my grandmother's favorite birds, the hummingbird. As a harbinger of spring, the hummingbird is always the first to feed on the nectar of new spring blooms. This is very much like our relationship to Christ, in that he was the first to Love us and give us life. Like Jesus, this hummingbird gave tenderly everything of himself until he died, and in his death the hummingbird preserved the flower, as Christ preserves us in his Grace from the death of Sin. I also think of this poem as a model for how we should love people, giving all that we have now and forever to Love one another, so that we may be like Christ in everything that we do. During this season of Advent, may the imagery of this poem remind us of the goodness of Christ's love that even in death protects us, and preserves us from perishing.