Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SEEDS, by CHARD POWERS SMITH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SEEDS, by                    
First Line: The world is barren now
Last Line: Where I have always been.
Subject(s): Earth; Seeds; World


The world is barren now,
And now I know
There is a world beyond all worlds, and there somehow
My flowers grow.

There when it seemed
That I might understand,
A lily spread to catch the dew of stars I dreamed,
Like God's night-silent hand.

And when I wrote
The poem that none will read,
A moonlit poppy bared its freighted throat
And scattered seed.

There when I dared the wise
And fear and pain,
My night-bound seeds began to swell and rise
With morning rain.

And there the soul of her
Whom death set free
Waters the twilit beds, my gardener
Busy for me.

And one by one
She counts all our love words
Crowding the branches there like sleepy birds
Waiting the sun.

I am a thing of flame
Hid in a beast,
Drawn from the reservoirs of fire beyond the east,
And given a name.

And when the name is gone,
Then all the sparks of me
Will flood the sky as surely as the seeds of flower and tree
Are skyward blown.

So all my hours
Of truth beyond desire
Go out to sow a promised mead with flowers
And store a dawn with fire;

While I, a mountain blossom in the winds of fall,
Waste seed by seed,
Scattering, each to its immortal need.
And when they all

Have sped and left a withered stalk of sallow green
That leans and dies,
Then I rise populous along the plains of endless skies
Where I have always been.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net