Seed Planters
Seed Planters (Poem)
“Forgetful squirrel, where’s your mind?
You snatch these fruits to hide and hoard
Yet every stash, you do not find.
You steal to eat, yet not what’s stored.”
The sapling glared through fledgling eyes
Observing, as trees do
But lacked all that which makes one wise
Like he who “tames the shrew”
For doing what he’d always done
The squirrel now felt ashamed
Though spake by one, he’d come undone
“All I took, I will reclaim.”
The noble squirrel, to make things right;
Retraced his every path
Crawling under mushrooms white
His first stash, masked from wrath
The birds above would never see
This cluster swarmed by tiny bugs
Who feast just like the bourgeoisie
And pay the squirrel with tiny hugs.
In their eyes he’d been the one
Who’d helped them stay alive
By doing that not simply done:
To live, and also thrive
Then on he hopped to places placed
Where once lay seeds he stored
Now grew a grove of saplings laced
With leaves, and seeds, and spores!
“I…did this? I made these grow?”
Though not a mastermind
It goes to show what we don’t know
Can still be used in time.
The squirrel returned to that young tree
But he said not a word
Of how his seeds had made him be
For wisdom sounds absurd
To those who still have yet to grow
Whether growing fast or slow
Then told him “Thanks.” and left it there
Breathing deep this brand new air.
The sapling planted in his mind
A seed of doubt
- that could’ve sprout –
But now served to remind
The lowly squirrel – and you, and me
That all of us plant seeds
Of strength and deeds
Or spite and weeds
And none of these are we required to water
For nature is our Alma Mater
Plant Wisdom’s seeds, in all their beauty
But linger not, it’s not our duty
To care, and water all the seeds
For Nature will - it’s her, not we
Who chooses when to make things right
Who cycles day as much as night
And uses shade, then uses light
To show us warmth, or bring us plight
Until her rainclouds wash us clean
Of all the mud, and all unseen
From seeds, our trees grow from their fights
To rise above to soaring heights.
- A. J. Darkholme (March 2022)
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Seed Planters (Lyrics)
[Intro]
Once upon a time
In a land not far away:
A squirrel who loved to climb...
A tree with lots to say...
And a curious turn of events
That made that tree seem rather dense...
[Verse 1]
The sapling glared with young fledge-ling eyes,
At the squirrel passing by
"Wait!" he said, "Do you not see?
That every time you drop a seed
You make a mess, because of your greed!
Your arms packed full while trespassing,
With things you stole, spilled without care
Then who cleans them up? It's just not fair!"
[Bridge]
And so the squirrel felt ashamed.
The tree was right: he'd never tamed
The way he'd always felt compelled
To steal, and hide, the seeds and shells
He stopped, and thought,
And said "You're right...
What I've been taught
Shall change tonight
And starting now, I'll find each one
I've ever dropped, til there are none."
[Chorus]
We plant the seeds! We plant the sound!
We whisper growth in the dirt underground!
So share what you know!
Then be on your way!
We're not meant to save; we don't need to stay;
We just plant the seeds... and offset decay.
[Verse 2]
The squirrel took off
In the forest, ran deep;
He stopped not to eat
Never gave-in to sleep!
Til he found the first place...
Where the birds couldn't see...
And saw hungry bugs feast
On his seeds gratefully.
Then sniffing around, he found a path that he traced
To a place he remembered where a scary fox chased
Where he dropped all his seeds while his beating heart raced
Without even a taste, in his mind, such a waste
And there, where the seeds would've laid
In that wide-open glade
Now stood a grove, casting its shade...
There, the squirrel just stopped...
And stared there... amazed.
[Bridge]
“Did I do this? I made these grow?”
It goes to show
The seeds we sow
Of even what we do not know
Will still take root from deep below.
[Chorus]
We plant the seeds! We plant the sound!
We whisper growth in the dirt underground!
So share what you know!
Then be on your way!
We're not meant to save; we don't need to stay;
We just plant the seeds… and offset decay.
[Verse 3]
The squirrel’s life changed from the truth found that day
A new wisdom gained, that he wanted to say
To the sapling who shamed him;
Now feeling brave,
He decided that maybe, the way he would pay
The naïve tree back: he would not say a thing.
To not rub in his face that he was born in the spring
From the very same mess
From the seeds that he spilled
So he simply said, “Thank you...”
And then he left
Feeling fulfilled.
[Bridge]
Sometimes when helping the ones that we love
We forget the best help is a hug not a shove
And when the time comes to share your advice
Try to share it with sugar, not force-feed them spice
Or what you intend becomes a roll of the dice
And what was born out of love
Will not suffice.
[Chorus]
We plant the seeds! We plant the sound!
We whisper growth in the dirt underground!
So share what you know!
Then be on your way!
We're not meant to save; we don't need to stay;
We just plant the seeds… and offset decay...