Transform 2025 featured poem: “Transformation (II)” by Sarah Jane Mulvey 

Transformation (II)

by Sarah Jane Mulvey 


A peony begins to form

As a tight-fisted, bruise-colored bulb. 

Slumping towards the earth

Weary with the weight of becoming.  

 

A luna moth emerges from 

What looks like a clump of old,

Dead leaves, wings stunted 

And unable to fly. 

 

Baby Cardinals are hatched drab and grey,

Practically bald, really – 

Looking nothing like their crimson fathers, 

Nor their modest and lovely mothers. 

 

The beauty and color of our world

Does not happen by accident. 

Without tending, 

Most of it would not come to be. 

The peony thrives in sunlight, and good, rich earth. 

The luna moth needs strong branches and a soft place to land. 

The cardinal requires the same, 

Plus the careful attention of a parent. 

 

Each transformation is a chorus of yes. 

It is one hand reaching for another, 

Stretching beyond what we first thought possible. 

It is a giving of ourselves, 

And a holding of each other. 

It is the careful work underground, 

And the loud march in the streets. 

 

It is the dedication of a scholar, lost in the stacks for hours

Trying to find just the right name, the exact date. 

It is the diligence of a doctor, working at a microscopic level 

Trying to untangle the secrets of our human bodies

It is the dream of the architect, searching for the best materials, 

All the right angles, to build a world that can embrace us. 

It’s the slow current of ocean waves, 

And the tectonic shifts of the earth. 

A crystallis, a womb. 

 

We are the makers of our future. 

We are the painter and the palette – 

The musicians and the instruments – 

The poets, and every word we could dream of. 

 

In the midst of an endless cacophony of no, 

We continue to say yes to each other.  

To stretch our will and our love further than we first thought possible.

Continue the working, the marching, the creating.

The learning, the reclaiming, the resistance.  

 

It is a joy to stand beside you, while we watch it all take shape. 

An honor to listen to your songs, to take in the color of your dreams. 

To stand in the doorway of a home you have built for yourself.  

And I promise,  we will transform this place, 

Brick by brick and word by word. 

Until love, and sweetness, and beauty

Blooms forth without hindrance. 

 

About the poet:

Sarah Jane Mulvey is a co-founder of Anomaly Poetry, and host of their open mic nights at the Co-Creative Center in Downtown New Bedford. She also performs her poetry with The Collective NB. Sarah is currently serving her second term as as the City of New Bedford’s Poet Laureate. Social media: @sarahmulvz and @anomaly.poetry. To connect with Sarah Jane Mulvey, you may visit her website here or attend many of her spoken words events. Sarah Jane Mulvey is a poet, writer and non-profit professional.

This original work was commissioned by DATMA as part of our annual poetry series that launches each exhibition season. Read previous year’s original works include Transform (2025), Transform (2024), Shelter (2023), Shelter (2022), Water (2021) Light (2020), and Wind (2019).
Many of you who have been following DATMA since the beginning knew our Co-Founder, Roger Mandle. It was not shared with many that he dedicated a portion of his time to creative writing and had a passion for poetry. We continue the tradition of commissioning an original work each year to honor Roger.