Saturday’s Poem: Thanks to Flowers

My feelings exactly! And happy May Day.

THANKS to FLOWERSby Kate Farrell

Not only the cultivated ones in parks

and gardens, unfolding immaculate petals

on a terrace or trellis, and not just

the wild ones, kissed by elegant birds

in jungle foliage, or brightening roadsides

and meadows, blossoming anyplace that anything

can blossom, but thanks also to flowers

blooming in paintings, on carpets, pottery,

fabrics of dresses and draperies or wherever

the real or invented colors and shapes

of flowers lift the mood of a scene,

as they are snipped from bushes, gathered

in cordless bunches, tied in ribbons

or arranged in rare bouquets for precious vases.

Perfect by nature for gift and centerpiece,

they perfume ballrooms, backyards and prairies,

and, indoors or out the window, they gladden

celebrations and refresh every country

and season, for, even in iciest winter.

The word flower thrives in every language,

adorning what everyone says and imagines

with the beautiful thought of flowers

which teach by timeless example

that life goes by anyway; you might as well

flower.