By Bernie Bell.

The Plants Who Teach Me All I Know

The plants, who teach me all I know,

have shown me it is part of life

to be frozen and formless

in the dark below.

****

Dying, the thing that we most dread,

each year they readily embrace:

I bow to them, my friends the plants,

who shed their forms with such good grace.

****

They give themselves to winter’s night,

and then, when all’s completely lost,

from dark and cold they rise again

and strive, strive, strive for the light.

****

From ‘Soul Gardening’ by Jeremy Naydler