The Gardener's Conceit

Infinitely less fastidious than the
gardeners who take such pains to
insert tender new plants into the moist
spring soil, the mature garden strikes
its own autonomous order of harmony
in the disorder of its eventual presentation
in the depths of summer, mature and
proudly preening. The sensible
gardener recognizes how futile it is
to impose her own aesthetic on an
ancient and well-practised design
where independence and the struggle
to survive equips every living thing 
with the impetus to impress upon its
environment its very own standards 
forging its own niche, not averse to
aggressively mounting a challenge to
lesser-endowed neighbours as a symbol 
of survival's signal tool in the territorial 
imperative that holds whichever species 
asserts survives and dominates. And so
it is that the humble gardenassiduously 
planned and worked by the resident 
gardener asserts its own design
celebrating the collective power of
vibrant life, the colour, architecture and
presence of its admirable resilience
resisting redundant human agency.