Dinesh / Photos

A Blade of Grass

You ask for a poem.
I offer you a blade of grass.
You say it is not good enough
You ask for a poem

I say this blade grass will do.
It has dressed itself in frost,
It is more immediate
Than any image of my making

You say it is not a poem,
It is a blade of grass and grass
Is not quite good enough
I offer you a blade of grass

You are indignant
You say it is too easy to offer grass.
It is absurd.
Anyone can offer a blade of grass.

You ask for a poem.
And so I write you a tragedy about
How a blade of grass
Becomes more and more difficult to offer.

And about how as you grow older
A blade of grass
Becomes more difficult to accept

~ Brian Patten