a tiny flower

I saw a tiny flower once, growing from a crevice in a face of rock.
It was in the mountains, surrounded by a world of spectacle and grandeur
so that you might almost
look past it,
small as it was.

It wasn't there for me.
It had no story.
It didn't care that I looked at it.
It simply was.

But I, being one attracted by seeing, being touched by bright colors
and strange situations,
being one who saw beauty in the struggle of the small
to express itself under adverse conditions (being myself but small,
and often feeling my own conditions to be so)
I was drawn to this flower.

And now I have its picture.
I remember its beauty, just as I remember the beauty of the
great domes of rock,
the cliffs and boulders of ancient granite,
the towering trees reacing their green branches toward the heavens,
the cascades of water
plunging from unimaginable height
to be broken into innumerable
shards before ever they reach their foot.
And I remember this flower with the same fondness that I remember trees and rocks
that were before and will be after I am gone.

Which is greatest?

Shall I compare a symphony to a waltz
Or to a five chime whistle screaming in the night for me to follow?
Can I relate a flower to ancient stone and ever changing water or
the embers of my soul?

c. 8 May 2003