I set before you these flowers
For your reflection and edification
These flowers were cut from my yard
A yard not unlike the two yards that will cover us all some day
Some may say that cutting short the lives of these flowers is wrong
But what do I say to this?
That the greater danger is cutting our own lives short
For it is much easier to harm ourselves than to harm another
Unlike most flowers and most of nature
This flower lives in the city
Most flowers and most of nature
Are as beautiful as they are unseen by human eyes
But these flowers, these city flowers
Go largely unseen, even as so largely present
People pass by, out of their minds
Racing to that whose beauty cannot compare
Neither flowers nor nature require our attention
But, ahhhh, the beauty is all sufficient
So, if I have cut short the life of these city flowers
By some few days such is life
Pardon my offense
And help me repay such expense
With such beauty they briefly impart
Not unlike this poem
Which from the mind will soon depart
Let such beauty replenish the beauty of your heart
And prepare you for every worthy start
The beginnings of this poem struck while I was taking a walk late yesterday afternoon. I was to go to an Occupy Toledo General Assembly meeting early that evening, and I decided to take some cut flowers from my yard. I love it when the muse strikes! It is a glorious curse of the poet to pay homage to the moment when inspiration strikes. Having a life where I’m able to do this brings me incalculable joy. Some may say that I have too much time on my hands, but I certainly don’t have a watch on my wrist, or a cell phone in my pocket. Anyway, to the calculating chronologist, we all have the same 24 hours each day. Poets know better, I say in all humility, or rather awe. While many of us live a similar amount of time, in terms of times our heart is beating and there are waves in our brain, there are simple and great differences in how well we live that time. I am partial to the blessing given by the late Will Rogers in saying, “May you live all the days of your life.”
