within my gardener's pockets are seeds
i harvested all seasons-
round & small as buttons
flat & pointed as pins
white, brown, speckled, yellow, black
or shiny and pearly
i have all the colors-
soon, i will open my shed for more seeds-
mottled, scarred, rusty, half-pitted ones-
it comes
from all over my travels
i have kept them in the darkness for the season
but now it it time
to scatter them in the wide fields
all the seeds are covered with soil & water & compost
i don't know which ones will take root & grow
some will blossom in a few weeks with leaves
some will decay underneath the soil and never
even bloom
but this i know: all are good
so are the sky, sun, rain, cloud storms and creatures
pollinating and moving the pollen & grains-
there will be good fruits to harvest
there will also be plants to prune and throw away
one rotten apple does not mean the tree is not good
sometimes we just need to look for other good apples
& often times finding one good apple is enough
for this gnarled gardener's hands
Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - A discussion on Good and Evil, hosted by Punam. Join us when the pub doors open at 3pm EST.
What a terrific metaphor... I feel like we have to let all the seeds grow, even though some are bad we cannot know from the start.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bjorn. It took me time to find the right metaphor for this prompt.
DeleteWhat a wonderful poem, Grace. I love the needlework metaphor you used to describe seeds: ‘round & small as buttons / flat & pointed as pins’, as if you are sewing a patchwork of plants. I especially like the lines:
ReplyDelete‘one rotten apple does not mean the tree is not good
sometimes we just need to look for other good apples
& oftentimes finding one good apple is enough
for this gnarled gardener's hands’.
Grace, I love how you mixed the metaphors. Yes, one good apple is often enough. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteThe closing is so beautiful, the work is all worth it for the one apple! 💝
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the parable with the wheat and the darnel
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuesday.
Much💛love
I love this! Yes, we are all good. Seeds, apples, people. Such is life. Some will be rotten and will harm those the closest to them but as you say Grace, that rotten apple does not kill the tree.
ReplyDeleteA very pleasing poem anchored with a fine metaphor. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love your description of the seeds, and the whole extended metaphor. Acceptance. Joy in the small gifts. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYou have penned a lovely metaphor for life. Yet there is no morality in nature. A windfall is food for someone, a rotten tree is home to thousands, and every seed that dies enriches the soil. It's all 'good' in nature and there is no 'evil'.
ReplyDeleteLeave it to Homo sapiens to conclude there can only be all good or all bad, I guess so King Baby Ego and decide which side to fight. But you're right, patient gardeners stick around long enough to celebrate the diverse result. Nature abhors monoculture and monomaniacs!
ReplyDeleteWow, Grace. I don't know why but this brought tears to my eyes. Well, I do. Because that's what pure poetry does, pristine in thought and word. And the metaphor of seeds, with all its allusions, just sensitizes the listening heart (yeah, I'm mixing metaphors) as when it hears the wisdom of the ages. Which this contains so naturally, as seeds in the Gardener's pocket.
ReplyDelete~ Dora
Wonderful poem with a wonderful message. One good apple *is* enough. <3
ReplyDeleteThis is a superb metaphor! I loved this poem :)
ReplyDeleteLike your perspective here Grace.
ReplyDeleteNothing will change if we stop planting seeds even though we can't know which will grow.
ReplyDeleteI liked the positivity in your poem. Wonderful.
Grace, I like your gardener, he knows what he planted. When I was in school I became our school representative to compete in "weed seed judging at the state fair. Yes, your gardiner knows.
ReplyDelete..
That's a wise way to look at the circle of life. We must always keep that hope and scatter those seeds. (Kerfe)
ReplyDeleteYes, yes...how very beautiful!
ReplyDelete