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Treasure Trove
There’s treasure in the words we say,
The words we read, the words we write;
There’s treasure in each dawning day,
In sunlit glow and dark of night.
There’s treasure in a landscape view,
In rivers, trees and mountain peaks;
There’s treasure in a sunset’s hue,
In listening when our planet speaks.
There’s treasure in all things alive,
In flying fish and jumping hares;
There’s treasure in a buzzing hive,
In winter’s hibernating bears.
Do not be fooled by precious stones,
Or wads of freshly printed cash,
For Mother Nature shapes and hones
Our world for free on Life’s wild dash.
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Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children’s book and an 18,000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles.
Very well said and a good reminder as I drink the first coffee of the day while waiting for the sun to come before heading out into the world of commerce.
I must remind myself, sometimes.
Coffee and sunrise for me are reserved for the weekend, but you’re right, they’re to be treasured.
Beautiful portrayal of nature and the gifts we have to treasure.
Thanks, Roy. We often forget how much we should be thankful for as we get wrapped up in the trivialities of life.
Reminds me of some of Wordsworth’s musings. Well done.
What an honour you’ve bestowed on me, Terry. Wordsworth is about my favourite poet. I always have a volume of his work handy.
The structure and the rhymes are perfect here. I think we should recognize that the ABAB quatrain is absolutely crucial in formal English poetry. It is our regularly employed, go-to tool of expression. Repeating “There’s treasure in…” four times becomes the scaffolding of the entire piece.
A bit of a departure from my usual fare, I was trying for a piece that would fly off the tongue with a simple, universal message.
Thanks for reading and for your observations, Joseph.
You can add this poem to your list of treasures, Paul. I like it very much. Well done!
Cheers, David. I was wondering at the reception of this poem, it being quite different from what I usually compose. I’m glad you like it.
Nicely done, Paul. The economy of Nature is one of gift giving and receiving. Your final three words amusingly change focus, with the sober idea that life is short, which can be motivation to preserve providence by not taking too much of Nature’s gifts and thus destroying the landscape as we dash along. I’m intrigued that precious stones, coming from Nature, are in the same category as cash, but I suppose they are only acquired by mining, and not really precious until sorted, cut, polished, and set.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Margaret.
You’ve homed in on the exact word in the poem that’s been niggling me. Gemstones are merely geological products. It’s we who put a price on them and make them ‘precious’. I’d been toying with replacing ‘precious’ with ‘shiny’ in future versions of the poem, to emphasise that it’s only Man who puts a price on rubies and diamonds and the like, and to emphasise that they’re nothing special, except in our eyes.
Thank you for sharing this lovely poem. Sometimes it seems that folks outside the poetry-reading community think that poetry and poets are generally lugubrious, “tortured souls,” lying on their couch “in vacant or in pensive mood” all the time. But poetry, as you demonstrate, can be beautiful, luminous, and uplifting. And we do need more of that kind of poetry, that kind of literature.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Joshua. At a poetry site I belong to, the monthly submission’s prompt was ‘treasure’. Sometimes we just need a nudge in the right direction to write something like ‘Treasure Trove’.
Enjoyed your poem and its sentiments, Paul. Even thought
of a few substitutions you could use instead of the stones
were you so inclined -luscious homes, tony zones, cyber phones.
I like your term “Life’s wild dash”. It certainly seems more so as one
collects years.
Thanks for reading and for your positivity, jd. ‘Mobile phones’ would certainly fit the bill in this day and age.