The Garden of Life

Garden of life

A garden is like having a living, breathing thing around you all the time. It changes color, it seems, when you are not looking (buds to flowers, flowers to green). A flower garden makes you feel like there is a future in life. When you see them reach for the sky? A garden changes as life changes, the colors go from a deep hue, to red, to orange and green, a sign of maturity. Weeds have a place in the garden as well. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Weeds have their own story to tell, maybe of what could have been if only given a chance.

From the vibrant colors of the garden come the brown and yellow, full of promise, when they arise with a new urgency to bring dreams of the future.

Comments from Ariele

This is excellent—prose poetry with the internal line slant rhyme.

It changes color, it seems

When you are not looking,

Buds to flowers, flowers to green.

And the great quote, the density of meaning and philosophic tint.

Connie Campbell is a long time writing group member with Ariele Huff and a poet, though perhaps she didn't know it!

SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.).

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