On First Walking Through the US Botanic Garden

Condensing brilliance here anoints
The symbols of the dawn of time
Where earth embraces sky with liquid flame.

A calico display of time
Exists unknowing and unknown.
The crisping crust of words drips off like so much rain.

A lair of wealth, a stream of light—
A sleepless dream of lighted shade—
Sweet water trickles softly in its veins.

The solace of the heart and mind
Steeped deep in undiscovered mists
A thriving force where none was made to be.

The youth of man so manifest
In wandering where we cannot go.
The sharpest thoughts are tickled to submissive glee.

A mystery of grand design
Evolves in thriving nourishment,
The end of all to simple say: I see.

As One

We’re seeking order in a frozen time.
Throughout the tender center, can we be
Directed now toward a common goal?
Do we impolore, expolore or now deplore?
Make now your choice, the sweetness of a life
Unfolds itself beneath time’s steady hand.
So why preserve the solid conter safe,
To surely find itself so unrefined?
To let the hour of grateful recompense
Be silenced loudly by an unseen hand?
The helpful, hopeful, happy time to come
Will not, though all impede, be so delayed.
Such is the attitude so well endowed
To surely set aright the thing offset
That of istelf itself does not correct.