For today’s Poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub, Sarah encourages us to celebrate National Weed Appreciation Day.

Over at National Day Calendar I found some tips on how to observe this day of appreciation:

HOW TO OBSERVE WEED APPRECIATION DAY

• Take the day to learn some of the benefits of the plants, weeds, flora, and fauna around us.
• Create a wildflower or native species garden. 
• Identify the “weeds” in your neighborhood. 
• Do you want to learn more? Read 5 Edible and Medicinal Weeds.
• Learn the uses and share your knowledge using #WeedAppreciationDay on social media.

And I’ll add:

• write poems about weeds
• pick weeds and use them as negative space filters for photographs

Last year I discovered that I can put a small weed on clear plastic and use it as a shape filter for my images. I hadn’t tried it in a long time, so this morning I took a walk and finally found a couple of Early Blue Violets to use in my filters this morning.

A Weed is a Flower in the Wild

My driveway is a testament
to the futility of forcing
nature to form.

High-pitched human wind
of the leaf-blower
may keep it at bay
for about a day but
that is all.

It is no match for nature’s howl.

This morning the lake
flowed like a raging river
as branches broke and scattered
fir cones fell and skittered
fir needles re-carpeted
the pavement splattered
white by appreciative bird-life.

The early blue violet
boldly holds its symmetry
against the chaos.
The weed among the plants,
its beauty confounds its label.
A deep purple jewel against
the gray and green
misvalued and rejected
yet persistent and free
like truth and love
only softer and more prevalent.