In honor of the 205th anniversary of Ralph Waldo Emerson's birth, I post a poem that reflects one of my initial understandings of his world view and that of the American Transcendentalists.
ever see a blossom a bud to be,
or find an acorn the envy of oak tree?
a backward glance?
nature would never permit
such a dubious delight
for the bud may finish
what the oak did start
and round such a circle
first and last remain far apart.
(November 1973)