Why try to force a rose to bloom?
To pry its petals b’fore their hour
Is surely to destroy the flower,
So patient plant and give it room
Under the warming sun and wait
For root and branch to acclimate,
And if you guard from drought and storm
The tender bud begins to form.

Then how much more a careful role
To tend exquisite blooms, most rare,
The harvest of abiding prayer
Within the gardens of the soul,
Where working in the love of light
You prune the branch that blocks its sight,
Awaiting fruits of charity
Where faith meets hope to set us free.

So cultivate, both inward, out,
Your gardens with enduring care,
With wonder that through gifts of air
And earth and sun the seeds will sprout
If only we direct the flow
Of water, gifted, they will grow:
In time the bloom and then the fruit,
When we are mindful of the root.

_______

Copyright 2025 M. Ryan Taylor

Note: I don’t usually re-write a poem from beginning to end when it’s not working out. Version 1 was sounding pretty sing-song and hit an uninspiring brick wall, but I liked the basic idea and a few phrases from the source well-enough that I restarted on a fresh page. I gave it a slightly more sophisticated rhyme scheme to take away that ‘sing-song’ feeling (ABBACCDD), and patiently visited with every phrase and line, waiting for the ‘fruit’ to appear, and I think it did. 🙂

Photo: Ken Friis Larsen via Unsplash

Post filed under All UkulelePlay! Blog Posts.