Sitting In The Shade

A precious stone set in a salvia sea
    Proclaims Our England is a garden . . .
The guest from Tokyo sips her tea:
    “Too flowery, pardon.

 Because our ways of looking at it are
    Such poles apart, the world's extremes,
 Oh, how inscrutably bizarre
     The colour seems!

 So very different, indeed, the taste,
    An almost dizzying sensation
 Beside a simple rock or two, well-placed
     For meditation.

 No water, curved round tree and moss, a door
     That nature’s essence enters by?
 Some gardens may contain much more
     Than meets the eye.”

Jerome Betts

If you have any comments on this poem, Jerome Betts would be pleased to hear from you.