(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

This is a poem written by a beautiful person, Tina Palmer, a unique person in the community whose talents are worth sharing — with her permission. I hope you find it as thought-provoking as I did. It had me consider what is all about us that we fail to appreciate. Each of us can take away a different meaning from her poem:

“When there are stem leaves and thorns,

Then where are the rose petals,

the flower?

“What if everything needed is there,

then where is the flower?

“Where did it go;

the rose flower?

“It’s planted in the ground, the rose plant

everything but the flower bulb.

“Why is there water everywhere?

“Water, water; but none to drink

“For it is dry in the desert

“Why are there no rose petals?

“Then the rose is a memory

“The love found there

is in our hearts.

“Will the flower return?

“One will never forget the rose.

“It will bloom again.”

— Tina Palmer

Submitted via Gabrielle Allen

Parkersburg