Hold fast to earth and have no shame In loving that from which you came. Much that you are was in the ground That wrapped your tiny seedling round. The cosmic question -- what is Death? -- Is answered in earth's even breath; -- There all that's been is yet to be. -- By means of it your parent tree Could lift you to a wing-fanned height, A wee samara, stroked by light. The wind's slim shoulders, curved with toil, Bore you below to that same soil, And you have learned, by lying there, To carve your being out of air! Reach up towards heaven, remembering In swirls of vagueness that faint spring When, drowsing on the sky's blue shelf, You were and yet were not yourself. Let gracile branches twist their way Across the quiet night and day, Content to know you share a scheme That is a God's unending dream, And ever willing to aspire To something mystically higher. Bend not to each slim air, but know Strong winds that bear your seeds below. In stars and silence wisdom find. To storms be firm; to birds be kind! Show love for earth and heaven, too, By rendering unto each its due: -- Shed leaves to fertilize the sod, And stand a cynosure to God! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: DR. TRACE TO THE CORONER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A CROWNED POET by ANNE REEVE ALDRICH A LULLABY by THOMALLY HOLBECH ANDERSON COMPARES THE TROUBLES WHICH HE HAS UNDERGONE, TO LABOURS OF HERCULES by PHILIP AYRES PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE: FRANCIS FURINI by ROBERT BROWNING THE WINGED MARINERS by ADA CAMBRIDGE |