Experience and Hope Returns

The next two poem prompts for the poem-a-day challenge were to write a poem about the word  "experience" and to write a poem inspired by art. The "experience" poem I wrote has a rather negative tone to it, so to balance things and end on a more positive note, I tried to make the poem based on art more uplifting. Also, I tweaked the second prompt a little by writing about a photograph instead of a work of art (poetic license gives me the right, you know--Ha ha!). 

Experience

Experience is a strict teacher

who gives hard homework

and focuses on difficult lessons.

The lessons can only be understood

with the investment of time, energy, and money.

Once your resources are exhausted,

your innocence is gone, 

and your dreams are spent,

you realize too late 

that you should have done things differently.

Experience leaves with you the rueful thought,

“If only I had…” 

along with the dubious distinction, 

of course, 

of being older and wiser.

*   *   *   *   *

Hope Returns

A triumphant daffodil,

bright pinwheel of sun,

held high on a green stem,

celebrates its emancipation

from the dirt and dry, brown leaves

of the forest floor

by softly fluttering 

in the gentle breeze.

*   *   *   *   *

My husband and I took a walk on the Daffodil Trail in the Furnace Run Metro Park here in Summit County where I live over this past weekend. The weather was perfect, and we really enjoyed the chance to get out along the trail. Unfortunately, the snow we had the previous weekend was very hard on the daffodils, and many were damaged by the cold. Some survived, though, and I took a few photos including the one above. 

Below are a few more photos from our walk including one of my husband and walking companion. The trail winds through the trees with different varieties of daffodils planted in bunches along the way. A deep ravine with water running through it is on one side of the trail for a while. In other spots little creeks of water trickle through and around the trees and sometimes cross over the path. Someone (not us) had carved hieroglyphics into one of the trees. I also found a few yellow Forsythia blooms at the end of the trail. We heard birds singing in the trees and a woodpecker hammering on one at one point. We also saw a few chipmunks along the way. You can click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to take a closer look at any of them.