This Thing Called Gardening

10. The Margin

To this poet’s eye –
giving gardening a try –
the empty border
can be classified
as the margin
of a page of earth
begging to be filled in
with shade-loving fern.
Perhaps a Japanese acer
with its autumn treasury?
One of those shadies
according to the manual.
On the other hand, what if
the unattended marginal
should remain perennial?
As in left free to breathe.

13. Seed

Learn fast how a seed
refuses to be hurried
into bud-bright form.
Content to pace itself
like a micro batsman
with all of the time
in the world to wait
for the well-timed
stroke of revelation –
already bloom-primed
for its own silent ovation.