Ode To An Unknown Flower

In a quiet, shaded cemetery I find thee,

A single, ivory blossom, simple and unknown.

Yet deep rosy flecks bedeck thy white-satin face

With more splendor than the rubies of a royal coronet,

And the tender green leaves of newly-born spring

adorn thee as a mantle finer than any queen’s silken cape.

Banners and flowers adorn the Dead,

drooping and battered by wind and by time.

Yet this one quiet flower, unseen among the dying tones

Of famous blossoms, blushes with modest pride

And sweeps away all other beauties with one single tremor,

Saluting the Dead with Nature’s wild comeliness.

Unseen, unknown, unnoticed but as a thing that should not be.

And perhaps here to stand only for a short time.

A day? A week? and seasons will pass on and take thee away.

Yet God in heaven sets thee here to grow!

In a quiet, shaded cemetery, I salute thee,

Thou living and bright among the dead and gone,

Ephemeral though thou may be.

O single, ivory blossom, simple and unknown,

No grander petal, no brighter hue, could stir me thus

As thou, lowly flower in the grass, set as God commanded thee,

To grow and beam, and inspirit Man,

Who must always bow to greet thee.