SUNFLOWER

Ah! Sunflower, weary of time*
eyes the hours with suspicion
they either ran too fast or too slow
for Sunflower’s satisfaction

When a little seedling, she ached to grow
that she could live her dream to shine
beneath the light of that glorious sun
and to its rays, her heart incline

And having bloomed as flowers do
and having lived the dream she dreamed
her lengthening shadows she fears
oh how quickly has the hours streamed

Night is falling, her vision dims
Still she stands, her vigil she keeps
until her Sun has fully set
She knows she serves as she stands and waits.**

 

Written for DVERSE’s Meeting the Bar Prompt – Bridging the Gap.  Amaya encourages folks to select quotes from two sources – books, poems, etc. – and to write a poem that uses the quotes as  the beginning and end, respectively, of the poem.

I owe the first line of the piece to William Blake’s Ah! Sunflower and the last line to John Milton’s On His Blindness.  I admit that my choices are not random.  I read several poems until I found something I can work with.  That is Ah! Sunflower.  I did not know what last line I would use.  I tried reading several poems dealing with time but nothing clicked to me.  However, I had to have an ending for this piece.  Lately, I have been thinking of a piece inspired by On His Blindness and I have been thinking a lot about its last line.  So I decided to use a paraphrased version of that as this piece’s ending line.  I guess, it kinda sorta works.  Regardless, I had fun writing for the prompt. 🙂

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Credits:

*Ah! Sunflower by William Blake

** On His Blindness by John Milton

 

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