Alliteration Contest Poems: The Gardener Mind, Andre Demers

Andre Demers is a poet and fictionist from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. He enjoys reading long poems for the Short Poetry Collection on Librivox.  

The Gardener Mind

Tonight the sleepless at their windows moan,
"How sweet it would be to shed the spectacles
Of language, learning it all again with eyes
Fresh in the morning when my thoughts may matter,
And concepts, that need no words to carry them,
Would also leave me unperturbed. Please scatter
Over my searching eyes a dreamless sleep,
That neither memory or imagination
Disturb my practice at the dying thing.
Maybe the flashing over of our life
Occurs at once, or over all the nights
We spend a span in poking through the past
In seeming needfulness, whether it be
A memory aged a decade or a day."
And the wind says, as a sandman singing to us,
"The trouble with thought is that its object is
Not clearly a free choice, since habit has
Begun its bundle of conjunctive choices
So very long ago when you were younger
And happier to be a self determined;
But habit's roll may be unravelled by
Effort and time and gratitude and grace,
And you may plant whatever ideas you please
As arbitrarily in your arboretum
As fancy may deem best while freely falling
Into the arms of its creations; see
Life cycles of thoughts and topics that never die
But only sleep when attention's light moves on,
Travelling the universe for another flower,
And though in its endurance it is strong,
It has to stop at every obstacle,
Until it learns to overcome and choose.
Think of the joy of sleep, the beauty of dawn,
The divine disregard of the breeze-borne bird,
The pulse that slows to the ocean's tranquil tide,
And the ripples off the rocks of gentle waves
Expanding and dispersing steadily."
We give in eventually. Dreams that survive
To be remembered tell what we half know,
All that we want, fear, and hold doubly dear,

Who we might call today because we chanced

To dream of them, and crave

The conversation of like minds or minds

Harmonious in difference, the challenge of

A friend too fierce in fostering flourishing,

And those too cold to test out fine advice

Like, "Let us walk to stimulate our talk,

To see if your mood is really insoluble,

Or if bright fields of waving grass and movement

Will be sufficient to enliven you.

Now we must wander through some fresher woods,

Let down your baggage of beliefs. I know

Some are quite true, but they do not serve you.

Yes, every day opinion's ousting fact;

I often think you're better than you are,

Because you will be, being the future self

I'll love as fully as the present one.

May the example exude in you and your

Mind's kindness to itself. I'm sorry that I

Finish so many of your sentences;

I know the way you cut yourself off is

Frustrating enough to you. To me it is

As cute and careless as a figure skater

Rapidly, effortlessly turning to

Whatever direction the music moves them to,

And I have you to thank for swiftening time."