"The Package of Seeds"

The Package of Seeds

by Edgar Guest

I paid a dime for a package of seeds

And the clerk tossed them out with a flip.

“We’ve got ‘em assorted for every man’s needs,”

He said with a smile on his lip.

“Pansies and poppies and asters and peas!

Ten cents a package and pick as you please!”

 

Now seeds are just dimes to the man in the store

And dimes are the things he needs;

And I’ve been to buy them in seasons before,

But have thought of them merely as seeds.

But it flashed through my mind as I took them this time

"You have purchased a miracle here for a dime!"

 

"You've a dime's worth of power no man can create,

You've a dime's worth of life in your hand!

You've a dime's worth of mystery, destiny, fate,

Which the wisest cannot understand.

In this bright little package, now isn't it odd?

You've a dime's worth of something known only to God.

"Father"

This is a poem I memorized in Jr. High for our school's Poetry Recital. For some reason I decided to look up some of these old poems and thought I'd share this one. I originally got it out of a book my grandmother put together with poems she learned as a girl. Edgar Guest is now one of my favorite poets.

Father

My father knows the proper way
The nation should be run;
He tells us children every day
Just what should now be done.
He knows the way to fix the trusts,
He has a simple plan;
But if the furnace needs repairs,
We have to hire a man.
My father, in a day or two
Could land big thieves in jail;
There's nothing that he cannot do,
He knows no word like "fail."
"Our confidence" he would restore,
Of that there is no doubt;
But if there is a chair to mend,
We have to send it out.

All public questions that arise,
He settles on the spot;
He waits not till the tumult dies,
But grabs it while it's hot.
In matters of finance he can
Tell Congress what to do;
But, O, he finds it hard to meet
His bills as they fall due.

It almost makes him sick to read
The things law-makers say;
Why, father's just the man they need,
He never goes astray.
All wars he'd very quickly end,
As fast as I can write it;
But when a neighbor starts a fuss,
'Tis mother has to fight it.

In conversation father can
Do many wondrous things;
He's built upon a wiser plan
Than presidents or kings.
He knows the ins and outs of each
And every deep transaction;
We look to him for theories,
But look to ma for action. 

Edgar Albert Guest