Words are seeds; seeds are words
They are scattered by the breeze
Who knows where they will go, take root
On land or stormy seas
Words, you know, are regional
They similar to seeds
When they emerge from babe or soil
You glimpse the paths life leads
Our world is global in many ways
People, plants, ideas, thoughts
English full of foreign words?
American English is British ersatz!
Even with our deep deep roots
We are fragile. We are frail.
We are NOT in cahoots
Hoping to see others fail.
Let me welcome and embrace
Those who do not sound like me
Or look like me or think like me
We’re still similar at our base
This weeks W3 Challenge was to explore the theme: Beneath the Surface.
Write in any form, but keep your poem to 20 lines or fewer.
I started with one idea for a poem — but then it took me in another direction entirely. Like a seed blown with the wind.
William Shakespeare, in Merchant of Venice, wrote these words spoken by Shylock:
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
if you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
I agree up to the last line. I do not want revenge.
There’s a scene in Searching for Bobby Fischer where the chess teacher is telling the boy, Josh, that he has to hate his opponent and Josh says, “But I don’t hate them.” The instructor says, “Well, you’d better start.”
No, no — he had not better start.
We need to look for commonalities, not ways to win.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
Sally your poem is a beauty! But I love your discussion about hate. There is too much hate – we need a lot more love!!!
Sally, I like the direction where you were taken. ‘Welcome and embrace’ – a mantra we should all adopt. A great poem.
Good thoughts.
(The Shakespeare btw is Shylock – The Merchant of Venice.)
ooh — thank you. I’ll correct that. I knew the quote and did a quick “google”. See where it got me?
Beautiful poem, Sally!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Sally, I like how you connect language and growth in ‘Words are seeds; seeds are words’. This leaves me thinking about how even small words can take root in ways we don’t expect.
~David