Hidden Success Poem by Dennis Parker

Today I sat down
to write a poem about you,
but every time I put my pen to paper,
it rendered expressions about
the serenity of a sunrise,
phrases about the peacefulness of a sunset or
about the regret of words unsaid.
My pen composed metaphors
About the freshness
of a spring rain,
how the morning lark sang
so sweetly on bow of the elm tree
and how those things are pleasing to me
I wrote lines describing the full moon’s light
as it reflected that special night
off the still surface of the lake.
For goodness sake, my pen inscribed similes
about “bees”
and “flowers”
and about the hours that I spent
playing music for you on the flute
that I made from the cedar root of
tree from our backyard
and how the songs refresh my spirit.
I wrote about all the beauty that can be found
in the simple things around
that make me smile
and then I thought for a while
and felt that I had written
nothing there that expressed
how I feel about you,
so I gave up, thinking that I had failed
in my feeble attempt,
then I realized I had accomplished exactly
what I had set out to do.