“Nothing has ever been said about God
that has been said better by the… trees.”
— Thomas Merton
In flowering grace
the dogwoods
sing Your name
in leafing song
of petaled prayer
that seeds
the feral air.
Wild, the grace
of green.
Wild, the You
of Calvary
who resurrects
the spring.
Mary Alice Dixon, co-editor of Kakalak Journal of Poetry & Art and multiple Pushcart nominee, leads Grief Writing And Collage Workshops for Hospice. She recently won the NC Writers’ Network Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition, the Poetry Society of SC John Edward Johnson Prize for a Poem on a Religious Theme and has been a finalist for the NC Poetry Society Poet Laureate Award. She is the author of the chapbook Snakeberry Mamas: Words from the Wild (Charlotte Lit Press, 2025). Her poetry appears in numerous places, including Amethyst Review, Catholic Poetry Room, Clayjar, inScribe, Pinesong, Soul Forte, and Swing. She lives in Charlotte, NC where she grows dogwoods and sunflowers in cow manure. Mary Alice is honored to often serve as a preliminary judge in Catholic Literary Arts Sacred Poetry Contests.