Primer for a gardener

      Primer for a gardener

 

            Pure is the rose

            child of light

            serene and perfect

            in my sight.

 

And I would surround myself with purity,

the world and man being trammeled as they are.

 

Therefore have I caused

all ordure, rot and filth to be removed,

the land unsullied,

that roses,

nought but roses

might abound,

fitting fruit

of this cleansed

and sober ground.

 

Yet this sweet dream,

as all my select plantings,

will not yield.

And roses have I

not a one.

 

Purity, it seems, won’t  show its face

Where imperfection also has no place.

 

                        Chuck Merrill

                        (revised) 10.Mar.05