Climbing Clematis and Zen Rose/ 2 short poems by Al Johnson

Climbing Clematis

A gardening genius named Gladys
Grows the world's most ambitious clematis.
It will rush up the pole
Towards its ultimate goal,
But even Gladys can't tell us what that is.

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Zen Rose

The zen way of looking at roses
Is to watch one as it opens and closes.
To become one with its isness,
While ignoring the business
Of pruning, deadheading, and hoses. 

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Al Johnson is an Oregon land use lawyer.  He has retired from a career litigating the landscape, drinking good and bad coffee, and assembling his personal anthology of odd, affecting, and often startling short stories along the way.