you've seen a strawberry <br />that's had a struggle; yet <br />was, where the fragments met, <br /> <br />a hedgehog or a star- <br />fish for the multitude <br />of seeds. What better food <br /> <br />than apple seeds - the fruit <br />within the fruit - locked in <br />like counter-curved twin <br /> <br />hazelnuts? Frost that kills <br />the little rubber-plant - <br />leaves of kok-sagyyz-stalks, can't <br /> <br />harm the roots; they still grow <br />in frozen ground. Once where <br />there was a prickley-pear - <br /> <br />leaf clinging to a barbed wire, <br />a root shot down to grow <br />in earth two feet below; <br /> <br />as carrots from mandrakes <br />or a ram's-horn root some- <br />times. Victory won't come <br /> <br />to me unless I go <br />to it; a grape tendril <br />ties a knot in knots till <br /> <br />knotted thirty times - so <br />the bound twig that's under- <br />gone and over-gone, can't stir. <br /> <br />The weak overcomes its <br />menace, the strong over- <br />comes itself. What is there <br /> <br />like fortitude! What sap <br />went through that little thread <br />to make the cherry red!<br /><br />Marianne Moore<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nevertheless/
