Six poems, spoken and sung (text, video, music)

WISTERIA FROM SEED

“Almost no one grows wisteria from seed,”
I told my sons.
“This one has a healthy set of leaves
so it ought to flower
in about ten years.”

I’m sixty now.
When I was in school
a botany professor showed our class
a bamboo plant.
“This flowers every forty years,” he said.
“I won’t be here to finish the experiments
I might start now.
If any of you are planning graduate studies,
please see me after class.
I’ve got some ideas I’d like to try.”

I never thought myself a man of faith
yet I grow wisteria from seed
while others study bamboo
plant vineyards
grow olives
raise children.

"Wisteria from Seed" was first published in the journal Glassworks

WISTERIA FROM SEED as read by Jeremy:

WISTERIA FROM SEED as sung in Robert Gross' setting by Pamela Dellal at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, accompanied by Michael Manning (piano) and Roy Sansom (recorder):