Garden Poetry

One seed can start a garden
One drop can start a sea
One doubt can start a hating
One dream can set us free...
~J.W. Anglund~

Friendship

Life is a garden, good friends are the flowers
and times spent together life's happiest hours...
And friendship like flowers, blooms ever more fair...
when carefully tended by dear friends who care.
~Helen Steiner Rice~

Garden Path

Let's stroll along a garden path
And just enjoy the day
No thoughts of worries fill our minds
We'll just wander on our way.

Forget about life's problems
You'll see that they will keep
Just walk with me a little ways
Nature's blessings we will reap.

Let's find some joy in little things
We'll talk of nothing much
Just wander down the garden path
Sweet flowers we shall touch.

We'll find a spot to sit awhile
And watch the clouds float by
We'll listen to the song of birds
And sigh a pleasant sigh.

When at last the day is over
And home now we must go
Take the memory along with you
For the days you're feeling low.

~Charlotte Anselmo~

The Little Garden

A little garden on a bleak hillside
Where deep the heavy, dazzling mountain snow
Lies far into the spring. The sun's pale glow
Is scarcely able to melt patches wide
About the single rose bush. All denied
Of nature's tender ministries. But no, --
For wonder-working faith has made it blow
With flowers many hued and starry-eyed.
Here sleeps the sun long, idle summer hours;
Here butterflies and bees fare far to rove
Amid the crumpled leaves of poppy flowers;
Here four o'clocks, to the passionate night above
Fling whiffs of perfume, like pale incense showers.
A little garden, loved with a great love!

~Amy Lowell~

Garden of Dreams

If wishes were butterflies
And teardrops were flowers,
I'd have you here with me
In my garden of dreams;
My hopes would be raindrops;
My yearning, the sunshine;
And I'd paint with my brushes
The starry moonbeams . . .

I'd paint a huge canvas
Of love all in colors,
In colors of scarlet
And robin's egg-blue,
In splashes of lavender,
Slashes of ebony,
Touches of spruce,
And ivory, too.

My garden of dreams
Is awash all in colors,
Vibrant and glowing,
Graced by a dove;
My garden of dreams
Is a haven of wishes,
A soft, secret spot
Protecting my love.

A blanket of color
Protecting my love--
A canvas of wishes,
Bright colored wishes,
Wild, wanton wishes
In my garden of dreams.

~Beth B. Jacks~

If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in character,
there will be harmony in the home;
If there is harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation;
if there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.

(Chinese Proverb)

The Humming-Bird

A route of evanescence
With a revolving wheel;
A resonance of emerald;
A rush of cochineal.
And every blossom on the bush
Adjusts its tumbled head;
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy moring's ride.

~Emily Dickinson~

A Special Garden

Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be obedient
Lettuce really love one another

No garden without turnips:
Turnip for meetings
Turnip for service
Turnip to help one another

Water freely with patience and
Cultivate with love.
There is much fruit in your garden
Because you reap what you sow.

To conclude our garden
We must have thyme:
Thyme for love
Thyme for hope
Thyme for joy

~Author Unknown~

Garden Of Your Mind

Your mind is like a garden:
Whatever you plant will grow.
Your thoughts are seeds you're planting:
They produce, each after its kind.

And you, just like a gardener,
Can choose which seeds you'll plant.
And by the choice of seeds you sow,
You choose the harvest you will reap.

So don't plant seeds of lack or fear,
Disease, discord, or doubt.
Plant, instead, the seeds you want;
Then things you want will sprout.

This gift of choice is given to all,
And not to just a few.
The harvest, friend, is in your hands:
The crop depends on you.

So take this power which you've been given,
And use it every day,
To gain from life the good you want,
For you have found the way.

~Charles David Heineke~
(1975)

To live a spiritual life we must first find
the courage to enter into the desert of
loneliness and to change it by gentle and
persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.
~Henri J. M. Nouwen~