A collaborative poem by those attending a poetry workshop at the Loblolly Marsh with Shari Wagner (previous Indiana Poet Laureate) on June 5, 2026
Look how I cradle the sunlight!
How I shimmer with waves
of big bluestem! Bring me
your burdens and I will murmur
sweet nothings carried on wind.
Salute my blue flags and I pledge
to remember your passing
through placid seas of beard-tongue.
Watch for the pond—
moving mirror of the sky—
and find the line of turtles
like old men basking on a bench!
Love those who walked this trail
before you—who pondered
the spittle bug’s riddle, chuckled
with cranes, soared with hawks,
shuddered when a dredge cut
into my heart! Take hope
in my song that, plowed under,
returns: chorus of sorrel,
woodpeckers drumming,
thrum of small wings! Come,
pilgrim, commune with me
and tell my stories. Kneel
before a robin’s blue egg.
Dance with prairie dock,
rooted and reaching, Cleave
as ladybugs cling to the grass.
Believe in my bevy of magic
far flung as the dust!
Friends of the Limberlost 