Lily Lily Lily Of The Valley Poem by RIC BASTASA

I have to ask you why Rosalie
QUIT HER POETRY AS EARLY AS SHE STARTED
WRITING HER MAIDEN LINES IN HER TEAHAUS

Overlooking the river under a bridge made of steel
I guess well, it could be because I told her

Life is not fair. Whoever told her that life is fair?

I played games on her,
I ask her why the old monk still sweeps the
Temple stone paths under a scourging sun
And hmm she knows: because the monk is there
Because the temple stones are there
Because the sun is there
Because the sweeper is there.

I ask her an analogous question: and why did the
Mountain climbers climb Mt. Everest?
Because the Mt. Everest is there.

Hmm hmmm hmmmm.

And she recites her favorite lines,
While I listen to her with all my heart:

“There is really nothing that you must be
And there is nothing you must do
There is really nothing you must have
And there is really nothing you must know
There is really nothing you must become
However, it helps to understand that fire burns
And when it rains, the earth gets wet.”

What wisdom! And she spoke her closing argument:

My dear sir the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
Near the bank of the river. The lazy dog was jumped over the river because the fox was quick and brown, and it was near the River {because it was such a kind of bank} and the dog was lazy, and as you see, the {fox was one brown and quick}


[With a wink, he turned and walked away.]
{Robert Fulghum, it was on fire when I lay down on it p.205}