Planting Poems

Is the poet a gardener of summer flowers
or an arborist who cultivates much deeper roots?

Either way,
each flower of a poem fades
and eventually the great redwood of a poem is lost
(though that seems sadder).

But for a time,
how beautiful,
how remarkable—
Like the bouquet I set before me today;
or the one tree I planted years ago
and every winter stays green.