Marsh Grass: Spartina Alterniflora by Diane Allerdyce

Image | Maria Orlova

Marsh Grass: Spartina Alterniflora

Salt grasses along the edge of the marsh

rustle and sway in the breeze, but stillness

seems to predominate—a quietude

belying agitation. Some, like sea

 

grass, aren’t really grass, while Black Needle Rush

inhabits the designation. Witness

spartina alterniflora’s multitudes--

smooth cords of living evidence that we,

 

for all our love of labeling, may hold

beneath our surfaces a mystery

not named but full of possibility

 

to be discovered, narratives untold,

with futures made of light and energy

and unexpected similarities

 

with marsh grass.

© Diane Allerdyce

Diane Allerdyce

Diane is a poet, professor, parent, partner, grandmother, musician, yogi, and caregiver for whom poetry is a balm for the soul. Her poems have appeared in TheGroundUp, Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, the chapbook Whatever It Is I was Giving Up and the collection of prose and poetry House of Aching Beauty.

Her story “The Gift” appeared in the North American Review (Fall 2019: 304.4): 43-50). (It was inspired, in part, by Wallace Stegner’s “Goin’ to Town”; an interview about her process appears at https://northamericanreview.org/open-space/conversation-diane-allerdyce-discusses-her-story-gift-her-partner-rory-spearing ). Diane’s short story “Kochma” appeared in Stories that Need to be Told 2022: A TulipTree Anthology; it was also first-place winner in the UK-based National Association of Writers and Groups (NAWG)’s 2022 Open Competition for Fiction and was republished with permission in their 2022 Anthology of Award-Winning Writing.

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