Roadside Flowers

 

We are the roadside flowers

Straying from garden grounds,-

Lovers of idle hours,

Breakers of ordered bounds.

Another sure sign of the approach of summertime in southern New Jersey
is the appearance of wild tiger lilies growing along a country road.
Photograph courtesy of Daniel Kelly

If only the earth will feed us,

If only the wind be kind,

We blossom for those who need us,

The stragglers left behind.

And lo, the Lord of the Garden,

He makes His sun to rise,

And His rain to fall with pardon

On our dusty paradise.

On us he has laid the duty,-

The last of the wandering breed,-

To better the world with beauty,

Wherever the way may lead.

Who shall inquire of the season,

Or question the wind where it blows?

We blossom and ask no reason.

The Lord of the Garden knows.

"Roadside Flowers"

 William Bliss Carman
(1861-1929)
Canadian-born poet who lived
most of his life in the United States.
In 1921, at a dinner held by the Canadian Authors 
Association, he was given the honor of Poet Laureate
of his native Canada and crowned with a wreath of maple leaves.