jar of hearts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH7WXlf9WLk

consider the tree

consider the tree: years and years, if not for centuries, it grows -- planted with purpose or happenstance. it grows upward, purposefully -- reaching for life. it weathers rain and wind, even war. it survives, down to its core, it fights from its roots to its leaves, hundreds of feet, to survive.

and then, imagine, what it must be like, to have a stranger pass, and with an idle thought decide, with the swing of an axe to end that life. For no real reason or rhyme. Maybe for money. Maybe to fill the time. in just a few strokes, the results of a years and years of growth crashes downward, dead.

but look -- have you ever seen a stump of a tree after some time -- a leaf -- a growth of new life peeping from the ruin there? it grows again, risen from the roots.

oh! consider the tree: even when killed it survives.

consider the corn

i consider the corn:
it bends and it bows

planted in rows
where the farmer has sown

each sturdy stalk sprouts on its own --
it does not look and bemoan
where the farmer has thrown-

it takes, good or not, what its given
and makes the best of it: its driven;

death is an option, but its choice is to grow
oh consider the corn! it grows where it's sown!

i gazed long at the field and had a lesson in thought:
i must grow where i'm planted, no matter the plot --

be it dry or wet, be it cloudly --
beaten by wind, eaten by rot --
-- forgotten or not --
think!

what if.... i grow roots in my plot ?

oh, the seed of my life was sown before time
by the toss of a hand
so much bigger than mine

i consider this hand that placed me with care --
and know it devined
the spot and the time, the rain and the shine
of my planting here --