Navigating Poetry

Navigation is about more than swimming. It is about how we find our bearings as we move through life.

Some paths are chosen. Others seem chosen for us.

This poem explores the tension between what is given and what is made.

THE GARDEN
Some flowers grow where they will grow,
Scattered by winds or the finger of God
To rest like smiles across a field
Of waving grass and tender shoots.
Brief days. Bright sun. No toil or care.
A garden of kisses lingering there.

While beautiful gardens set in a row
Of flowers, and fountains that trickle and flow.
Prepared by a sculptor who chisels in stone,
The hand of a gardener working alone.
Lush colors, sharp contrasts arranged like a vow
Of effort and duty and value and power.

The spark of a smile, the comfort of truth.
The wisdom of ages, the beauty of youth.
What nature has given, and man has reformed –
The glory of birth and the passion reborn.
The songs of our heart, and the sweat of our brow.
To build for the future and live in the now.