Tara Bray

In the last decade I have become interested in herbal remedies, not at all because I want to become an herbalist, but more because I am interested in the ways nature is ever present in our lives, and in the way it gives to humans over and over again. It is both a giver and a destroyer, as are we.  Noticing, and naming and recognizing plants, trees, birds, and insects has become a great source of pleasure for me.  I’ve learned to make salves from lavender, plantain, calendula and passionflower and how to make tinctures from lemon balm and elderberry.  There is something simple and primal and even a little empowering about being able to do these things.  It takes a kind of trust too, to put droplets of a self-made tincture under the tongue. Naturally, when I first found heal-all, a plant I had only read about, I was thrilled, and perhaps that energy helped create this poem.  There are at least two opposing forces here. One is the passage of time and the end of motherhood.  The second is harder to name, but it relates to the power of simplicity and beauty and tending.  Much of this poem uses imagery from the home and in the backyard, and all of it comes from the local landscape of the speaker. We tend nature, and it tends us back.