How Does Your Garden Grow?

My life has been the poem I would have writ, but I could not both live and utter it. - Thoreau

tripping over vines

bleeding from thorns

arranged just so

i water handpicked, flowery words

weeding between verses

all the colorful things i've ever felt and known

hoping they'll grow into a poem

soft prayers are stronger than hard curses

an open heart of love holding more than a million closed, golden purses

Author's Note

"Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds." - Thoreau

Reviews

[In Em's Wonderland]

"all the colorful things i've ever felt and known
hoping they'll grow into a poem."

These were probably my favorite lines of this piece, but you described things so vividly and accurately. It's often hard to understand what makes each person's garden grow, but it may be different for everyone...as long as it keeps getting watered, it'll grow how it'll grow.

[Pete]

thank you for sharing and understanding. your kind thoughts and presence are appreciated.

[Mariej]

I love how you weed between the words so your poetry can grow healthily and well, dear poet. Like a poet/poetess, the farmer goes through all kinds of experiences which life throws at him and yet, he lovingly and with great care tends his produce and it pays off when he sees them growing and thriving and it is similar with a poet. I guess he/she is a farmer with words, continually and lovingly tending to them, choosing the sweetest and the best at the end of the day so that his poem is fit for presentation in a poem. The final two lines of the poem are so beautiful and so true. Excellent choice of graphic with truly amazing colours, stunning to sit and look at it! Sublime write very finely inked. Love the depiction which paints very nice/fine detail
for your reader to enjoy. Lovely work! Thank you for sharing, dear poet...

[Pete]

wow. very true what you say. thanks so much for sharing "uplifting" thoughts.

[Mariej]

Most welcome, dear poet...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

they grew into a beautiful poem here...grown with such a
poet's green thumb.

j.

[Pete]

tilling the soil and exposing that which is rooted. thanks for the encouraging thoughts j.

[keith]

i applaud the inclusion of music video paired with this write
tools are meant to be used

weeding between verses ... powerly powerful!

[Pete]

to me, music is poetry in motion. thanks for sharing the great thoughts keith.

[Vol]

Pete,
In a sense, every life is a poem, every moment a line. The problem is, no one reads poetry anymore. they "don't get it," or "I do not want to think that hard." 21st century culture has lost its soul.
Vol

[Pete]

a lots art. much agreed. sadly a world if instant gratification lacking depth of meaning. thanks for sharing thoughts vol.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I love this. It's really a beautiful tribute to the love of writing...and the love of living.

[Pete]

from my and my muse's view, the two go hand in hand. thank you fgf.

[Amy R]

"how does your garden grow?" is the process of nurturing and cultivating emotions and experiences into a poem.

The poet is engaging in a metaphorical act of gardening, carefully tending to their inner world in order to produce something beautiful.

The word choice in the poem is vivid and sensory, with phrases like "tripping over vines" and "bleeding from thorns" creating a tactile and visual image. && personification in lines like "i water handpicked, flowery words" adds depth to the language.

"soft prayers are stronger than hard curses" my fav line here, this added such powerful depth to your poem.

Thank you for sharing this poem here.
Greatly wirtten
-Amy

[Pete]

such a spot on, in-depth analysis. thanks so much for not being afraid to get your hands dirty, digging in and "getting " it.

[Amy R]

You're very welcome, twas a pleasure.

[Kane Hagwood]

I like how this poem paints the image of curating a poem like a farmer tending to their garden. All the pain, love, and all that in between--being nurtured into poetry. I myself have been hoping to grow some poetry after the rough past few months I've had. Thank you for sharing this, friend, and I hope you continue to grow beautiful crops of literature.

-Kane

[Pete]

thank you for sprinkling a little miracle gro. your kind thoughts are appreciated. here's hoping that you grow some yourself.