How greenly leaves rejoice, when it has rained
(waxy or tender, serrate, eggpocked, lobed)
Their veins run weighed

with thick green praise
And in each leaf: each chloroplast, each cell
Sings its Holy! Holy! A thousand thousand,
countless voices swell

in each one leaf
To see one singing, teeming, eager hand
flung out, meek and fearless, to grow, to feed
with its unseeable

small givings and receivings
Unbearable its hope! For human hearts
are grown too narrow, and too etiolate
to hold such weight

of bold rejoicing
as surges in the cells of one green leaf.
And God is kind. He grants our eyes relief
with tens, with hundreds--

We can bear thousands.
 To our scraped hearts, leaves in their thousands drown
each leafsong's thousandfold rejoicing sound
in one great peace

of green

This Might Just Be My Lucky Day

Oatmeal for breakfast,
 And when we went outside
It turned all gray and rainy
Before we got to slide.

We started reading stories,
But Felix threw a fit.
Mom said he's teething.
I think he should quit.

I asked to get my paints out,
But Mommy said "We'll see."
And then when it was snack time
There wasn't any cheese.

I spilled milk on my pony shirt.
I colored on my chair.
I pushed my little brother
Because he pulled my hair.

Mommy started yelling
And then she kicked the door
And then she started crying
Cause she couldn't do her chores.

Today is not a favorite day
For any of us three.
I think that if I ask my Mom
She'll let us watch TV.