Today's poem is Soil is for Poets by Mary Nodine. It is read by Julia Bouwsma.
Soil is for Poets
A stark steel beam
Will please the eye
Of one who tends toward order.
Strong, clean lines,
Its imperceptible bending
Essential to our infrastructure.
Soil has no tensile capacity
To speak of.
Yet
It forms elegant sandstone towers,
Settles and heaves with what seems like
A mind of its own.
Soil is for poets
With its vast array of colors,
Textures,
Microscopic grains to
Massive boulders.
Capable of creating
Vast plains, and
Towering mountains
Alike.
Concrete is burly,
Messy.
From simple ingredients
Come mighty strengths,
A mixture malleable
Into any form one could imagine.
Mad science meets brute force.
But every modern marvel,
Every humble house
Must rest on something.
Soil is for poets.
We don’t choose the ground we build on.
To work with what we have
Requires patience,
Finesse.
Willingness to see each site as
Possibility.
Imagination,
For we never know exactly what’s below.
Appreciation and respect
For what was never our creation.
It will not behave as we predict,
Exactly, but instead teach us a lesson,
Shift our point of view, just a little
Every time.
Soil is for poets.