Today the soft rain is <br />not falling, rather blessing, <br />as gentle as mercy, <br />making the air <br />more airy, if that can be, <br />nature’s air conditioning let’s crudely say, <br />and the geraniums blessing, in their turn, <br />the front door to my heart’s home, are, manifestly, <br />exhibiting pleasure. <br /> <br />It’s almost a century since the Indian, Professor Bose – <br />mark the day with unpicked flowers – <br />was drummed out of the Royal Society, no less, <br />for demonstrating to his satisfaction <br />and the delight of non-members <br />that plants had nerves, felt pain, revulsion… <br /> <br />and it’s pretty obvious that the <br />subtly-named Venus Fly Trap <br />has very effective, non-rust, non-gymnasium <br />vegetable muscles <br /> <br />while Hinduism, I read yesterday, <br />completes the picture – plants <br />feel pleasure as well as pain <br />and show it <br /> <br />so from today, no idle chat over the garden fence <br />like ‘the geraniums are perking up…’ <br />it’s ‘the flowers are pleased today! ' <br />and stuff the raised eyebrow… <br /> <br />I, who normally treat gardening as <br />a spectator sport, now in the light of <br />this clearer knowledge, dead-headed, <br />yesterday, the geraniums which looked like <br />the week after the week before, <br />a serious hangover after a burst of private <br />garden show, and today I look at them <br />tenderly – on this day of soft rain. <br /> <br />And, I feel dead-headed too; maybe today <br />a poem is flowering gently close by <br />the heart’s open door; and the geraniums <br />are – if not, anthropomorphically, pleased – <br />showing pleasure, in the measure <br />that Creation permits them to; and I <br />am pleased; for them; for it; to say the least. <br /> <br />I’ll leave that door open <br />on this day of soft and gentle mercy.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0050-morning-rain-in-early-autumn/
