Centers of Balance

She tries to feel what’s beautiful

with a quiet mind—but thought

opens her to the earth’s honed 

geometry. See how the sunflower’s 

outer petals, maroon and orange, 

frame the flowerhead, and its center

the disc florets, packed close—

golden ratio, the Fibonacci sequence—

their angles perfect for growing

the greatest sum of seeds.

In every spiral’s numerical center, 

a promise. And she, too, watching—

the double helix, a loaded spring,

her futures coiled and ready.

LEONORE HILDEBRANDT is the author of the poetry collections The Work at Hand, The Next Unknown, and Where You Happen to Be. Read more.


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Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Excerpt)

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How rare when I lived in the woods