A Simple Joy for you today...

~ ON A PEONY ~

I looked at a Peony early in spring,
That grew in my little front yard;

I gazed at it long, and I thought of it thus,
While placing around it a guard:

It has started in youth, and is vigorous in growth,
Its buds are just forming to bloom,

And soon they will burst into beauty and light,
With the pride that they seem to assume.

But as summer advances, the plant will decay,

And the flowers, that so charmingly shone,
Droop and wither, fall off, and lie on the earth,

Forgotten, uncared for, all gone!

Just so 'tis with man, the bud of his youth
Matures in the days of his prime,

And he droops as old age leads him on the tomb,
Where he falls, too, a victim to time.

But there is this with the man, that is not with the flower-
The deeds to the world he can give;

The name he can leave to embellish an age,
And a soul that immortal will live.

George Adams 1886

~*~