Poem September 8, 2025 Issue

A flower opens

Derek W. Stewart

Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love.

—Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 477

Oh, that all the flowers could be
roses, looking just like me.
Why cannot the pansy change?
Why ever such a frightening range
of flowers? Alas, for me!
’Tis much more difficult to see
the beauty of another.
Why can’t they be like me?

Awake, poor fool, and open!
’Tis nonsense you have spoken!
If you only had eyes to see
there God’s creation, pure and free,
in all its splendor and variety.
Take part! Appreciate! Don’t be
inward-looking.
’Tis God reflected—not me.