Gary Snyder: "What Have I Learned"

What have I learned but

the proper use for several tools?

The moments
between hard pleasant tasks

To sit silent, drink wine,
and think my own kind
of dry crusty thoughts.

     —the first Calochortus flowers
     and in all the land,
              it's spring.
I point them out:
the yellow petals, the golden hairs,
              to Gen.

Seeing in silence:
never the same twice,
but when you get it right,

     you pass it on.

"What Have I Learned" by Gary Snyder, from Axe Handles. © Shoemaker Hoard, 1983.

Photography credit: "Yellow Star Tulip" (Calochortus), by Steve Laymon (originally color).