by Jo Taylor

At last, everything becomes
a whisper. The dew disappears
as it meets the day, and grass 
withers as summer turns toward
fall. The daffodil in vogue
in early spring becomes warm
weather’s dying dance. Fame
and glory fade like red pigment
in the scorching, noon-day sun
as empires crumble and dictators 
fall and Wisdom whispers, Vanity,
vanity, all is vanity. Yet we press on. 
In sorrow and in song, we press on.
For that is what it means to live—
that is the journey to joy.

Jo Taylor is a retired, 35-year English teacher from Georgia.  Her favorite genre to teach high school students was poetry, and today she dedicates more time to writing it, her major themes focused on family, place, and faith. She says she writes to give testimony to the past and to her heritage. In 2021 she published her first collection of poems, Strange Fire.  She enjoys walking in early morning, playing with her two grandsons, and collecting and reading cookbooks.