Tag Archives: bulbs

REPLANTING DEMOCRACY

Leonoras Widow’s Tears, from Breck’s bulbs, planted 4-24-2025

The Holland roots arrived today.

They still need to soak

before I can plant them

deep enough to grow.

What Leonora’s tears will bring

to the garden yet this Spring,

I do not yet know.

The soil is as dark as ever.

This is no reason to fear.

It does not mean it lacks

the ability to accept seeds that grow

into new ideas, new joys, new hopes

beyond our current capacity to know

what wonders in freedom’s garden

will seek light, grow upright and glow

amid the new plantings we start today,

across new paths and waterways,

across neighbors’ fields 

on new roads and byways

joining the others we already know.

Together we continue to sow

new seeds of freedom, perhaps hybridized

alongside the naturalized and native plants

that make our yards, our streets,

our neighborhoods, our nation states,

our very planet come alive again

in even more fruitful and beautiful ways.

I plant with hope this day and every day.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

PLANTING TULIPS

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The Holland bulbs are on their way they say.

Soon, before first frost, I shall lift the plants

which bloom late to make space below

for tulip bulbs to settle in and grow.

In early spring tulips’ color may appear

unless squirrels discover my perfidy

in hiding the bulbs from their discovery

and move them as their own yard decor.

The squirrels and I often play such games.

Neither of us keeping score.

Abundant life means we both partake

of the joys of sharing garden space.

Squirrels, rabbits skunks and chipmunks

galore dance along to the garden’s birdsong

as I sit and read beneath a shade tree

until Autumn leaves fall and frost covers my seat,

and threatens my icy feet to slide under me.

First snows are already on my mind these cold mornings.

The geese fattening by the ponds give fair warning

that Fall’s falling temperatures foretell

Winter will soon arrive to spell my days outside.

I shall retreat inside to read by the fireside

awaiting the days those tulips arise.

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Filed under POETRY