This week we’re pleased to publish “No Purpose Other” by Therese L. Broderick. The poem’s title quotes the respected naturalist and author Ursula Goodenough.

Broderick is a writer with an MFA degree, resides in Albany, New York, and has been active in her local writing community as an open mic participant, workshop leader, and volunteer for the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. Her poems have appeared in many journals, webzines, anthologies, and radio broadcasts. She shares her daily metaphors and similes, some in the form of short poetry, on her blog, Metaphors for the Moon.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to hnn@americanhumanist.org with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

“No Purpose Other”

~ Ursula Goodenough

I want to die like this
...............................old and chorusing
in the midst
of October's spreading mint, springing thyme,
geranium overgrown.
...............................And surrounded
by newborns
calm in the arms of mothers and fathers,
their neighbor eyes
fixed on mine.
......................And clasping in my hands
a rattle-sized rock -- old
treasure once painted Mother's Garden.
..........................................................My daughter
circles too, holding her infant
"No purpose other than that
the continuation
........................continue."
........................................And all their round
murmurings For the sake of our child
we thank you for the sake of our child's children
we bless you for my yielding
...........................................descent

---Therese L. Broderick