The Meadow’s Keeper is a society poem, a reflection on people and a celebration of all the stunning names given to officially declared noxious weeds.
The Meadow’s Keeper
At odds weeds / officially declared noxious /
but free to thrive
knit the sun and rain-spoiled soil,
one thousand shades of green with splashes of
white, yellow, orange,
red, purple, blue.
Alligator Weed beside Bear-skin Fescue,
Bathurst-burr next to Nodding Thistle
Onion Grass alongside Hawkweed
Japanese Knotweed tickling Paterson's Curse
Poverty Weed neighbouring Ragwort
Wheel Cactus cosying up to Fireweed.
The Meadow's Keeper / officially proud /
but free to eradicate
tends tenderly,
minds / alongside
one thousand bugs, worms, creepy crawlies
insects, rodents, birds crowning
Horehound and Giraffe Thorn
Pampus Lily-of-the-Valley and Chilean Cestrum
Bridal Creeper and Prickly Pear
Devil's Claw and St. John's Wort
Bindweed and Hardheads
Sweet Briar and Soldier Thistle.
Weeding weeds / officially an option /
but out of the Meadow Keeper's imaginings
would eradicate,
uproot
one thousand drops of eccentricity, colour, beauty,
breath, life, love.
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I love this so much. The way you drew parallels between the idea of weeding in a garden, missing the beauty of those “unwanted plants”, and how that relates to our interactions with each other as people and a society is really powerful.
The Meadow’s Keeper is such a great poem! You are very talented writer! Keep it up!
What a creative poem. The last sentence gets me.
What a fun poem. I love to garden and it so relatable. Beautiful words. And it all ends with life and LOVE!!
This poem has such a deep meaning. I interpreted it as practicing acceptance, kindness and embracing diversity. All of us are beautiful in our own ways!
Such a deep heart warming poem, I love reading it so much..! Thanks for sharing.. 😘
Nice poem. I like your style of poetry.
the poem is too deep. did you write this poem? you have a deep perspective about life.
I did write it, glad you like it! Thanks!
I love to read a bit of poetry every now and again. this is a lovely written piece for sure xx
What a great poem. You did such a great job writing this piece. I haven’t read many poems lately and I’m so glad I came across this one.
This is a nice poem and just the idea of using these noxious weeds is very creative. 🙂
What a beautifully written poem. You’ve done such a great job of conveying the emotion within the words.
Very pretty poem! Its a great reminder that the so called weeds serve a valuable purpose in our ecosystem 🙂
This is a great poem! Thank so much for sharing this with us!