Two poems I found extraordinary, one called “Risk” Elizabeth Appell in 1979 which exhorts us to risk change, to grow into our beautiful self, another called “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shukar in the 1990’s tells of resiliency and determination, such that hope and beauty overcoming adversity… I’ve incorporated these two poems in this musing with some of my own poetry…
Blossom as Beautiful as You Can
For we are planted by
circumstance and the love
of those who bring
us life, and placed us in these
gardens of our minds.
Where the winds may
bend, the rain may bow us,
and the sun may hold us
in warm soil
of our circumstances.
Risk
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to blossom.
Then blossom as beautifully as you can!
The Rose That Grew From Concrete
Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.
And it is this determination, risk and resilience
that all who open eyes to beauty, must care!