The Roar of the roadside Tiger Lily

stray thoughts while driving today.

Tiger lilies tall and proud

Reaching out of the dry earth,

Survivors among the scorched grass

And shasta daisies --

Nature will push colour into

The shallowest of ditches,

And save water inside

A prickly plant --

We think we have

Conquered the planet,

Yet, without nature's blueprint,

We couldn't engineer

A tiger lily if we tried.

Author's Note

Reviews

[The Fallen King]

Beautiful simply beautiful.

[Pryde Foltz]

This a superb write, KL. Conquer nature ... can one really conquer herself without self-defeat. No way ...give up the battle and see if you can hear the tiger lily roar.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thanks. I think we would do well to pay attention to what nature has to say. :)

[barleygirl]

Even WITH nature's many blueprints, our creativity will never match those designs found in nature. I am particularly fond of this point of view, where we humans are put into our place, as far as how we think we reign supreme on this planet. I am also amazed at the wildflowers that are still blooming here when it's been 105*/40* for a couple months & everything is dried to a crisp. Just noticed some new ones yesterday!

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you, I think so too. The wildflowers are all that has survived this harsh hot summer. :)

[Einstein Noodle]

i have watched Brave with my grandchildren several times ..as they fell asleep or lost interest i kept watching through the end ..great wonderful movie!
enjoyed your upbeat poem as well ..tiger lilies are magnificent! i use to take rides on my HD through the back county roads of Iowa ..during the fall one year i was impressed with all the stretches of brown dying grasses in the ditch ..and as i looked closer i could see a bit of what artists see ..hundreds of hues of brown ...splashes of lingering greens ..movements in the wind ...i appreciate what you have done with the humble ditches of the world! ;)
E.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thanks so much. Brave was great, I thought the song appropriate.

[Alfred Kukitz]

I tell my engineer friends how anal they are making the Earth. You are right they could never engineer a tiger lilly. Insightful deepness!

Regards,
Al

[Lyn Anderson]

Your reviews never cease to make me smile. Thanks.

[Papaya]

They are everywhere around me. I have bunches and bunches in my front and my back yards.
They grow along the street and highways. They're so pretty. :)
We've not conquered a thing. Whatever we destroy, we are the ones to lose in the end...

[Lyn Anderson]

We can't hold a candle to nature's clever design. Thanks. :)

[Shannon]

True k. I am from Saskatchewan. The tiger lilies are the provincial flower and are protected. They are everywhere!

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you for stopping in.

[V]

Nice thoughts lovely expressed. I like poems about nature, especially flowers and I like the way you combined your thoughts with nature and the sweet analogy you came up with. Reminds me a tiny little bit of a very old poem of mine dealing with a tiger...(the immature pieces I don't like to share)

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you. - appreciate it.

[V]

You're welcome.

[redzone]

there are many things we can control in nature and in other spheres, BUT and this is a big but, only if we are consistent with and understand the limits of nature itself... everything is contradiciton and motion and always in change... if we understand these things and act on them in ways that are consistent with the real world then we can do many many amazing things with nature that can be of great benefit to humanity and to nature itself... the biggest problem with GMOs is not that we have discovered the genetic make up of plants etc, but that we have done this without regard to consequences and the way in which the world actually works... it is a great thing to be able to find the ways for greater yields in crops, but if used simply to make more profit in the world economy and to destroy in the process the natuive way that crops are grown and seeds that are compatible with local climates etc, then disaster results as with Egyptian wheat for example (the natural wheat once grown there is extinct due to GMOs and Monsanto)... we can do much better than this... and will once we get rid of a profit driven anarchic system of capitalism...

tiger lilies are beautiful and can and should be enjoyed as you are doing KL, just driving down the road and enjoying the colors and scenery... and your poem is loverly too, I could even smell the fragrances... ;0)

redzone

[Lyn Anderson]

That is exactly the point. We can learn from nature, but she'll best us every time. Thank you.

[Baby Ricochet]

"Nature always finds away." I think that's from Jurassic Park. We need to quit monkeying with it if we expect to be breathing in the future. Good poetic ode to nature who, despite our grotesque carelessness, rules over us in the end.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you. I really notice this year, with our dry hot weather. None of our greenhouse stuff can survive, but the wildflowers are everywhere.