Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems

Holland Kabat Redinger

I.

Can you forge a diamond
from road weary ice crystals
folded with dirt
hardened by winter’s bitter touch?

I’ve never much cared for diamonds.

Give me instead the ruby of the sumac bush
still deep crimson in January,
the emerald glint of a mallard’s wing,

The opal underbelly of the chickadee
singing a glittering song
like jewels strewn across the sky.

II.

Today, I know just where to go to find these
rough-cut stones.

Out the front door
down the street
towards the river’s edge,
to the aged trees
and shrubs and hedges
these hiding places for the birds.

The secrets of the frigid earth,
those hidden gems,
are there for those
who pay attention.

---

Holland Kabat Redinger
Poet & Campus Minister

Holland lives in northern Wisconsin, where she works in campus ministry. Reading and writing poetry has been a way for her to practice the presence of God in the mundane moments of life. This is her first published piece of poetry.

Photography by Nicu Chirobocea