The Gardener, the thistle and the seed

The Gardener, the thistle and the seed

A seed was planted by the riverside
In a plenished realm the river lied
The caring gardener tends to its need
Among the thistle and the weed

And as it began to rise above
It leaned well on the Gardener's love
It flourished full beyond compare
Among the weed and thistle there

Time had passed, and it grew strong
It towered high above the thorn
Its seeds were taken by the wind
To sprinkle life to honor Him

Tall it stood without a care
Stretched skyward in the autumn air
Looking out upon the span
Fixed proud above the plenished land

“I’m the reason I belong” it said
“I tower over dirt and thorn
There was a time when the gardener’s hand
Would help me rise up from this land

"Now I have sent Him far away
I have no need for Him today
The grandest by the riverside
I drink freely from its tide

"The thorns that wind around my feet
They’re too small to ever claim defeat
I no longer need the gardener’s hand
To keep them from this fruit of land”

Then a season came like none before
The rains that swept they came no more
The sun burned hard day after day
And turned the river banks to clay

The thorns with thirst spread far and wide
They wrapped up around the grandest side
They buried deep and tighter still
They stranged out its living will

It glanced its last over the span
While in the distance the gardener’s hand
Was tending to the other seeds
Who humbly knew they had the need

And just before the break of dawn
The life that flowed through it was gone
Silence surround the grandest seed
Among the thistle and the weed

This is close to the original, which was written in 1997. The first stanza needed the most revision because its rhyme scheme did not match the rest of the poem (1st stanza: ABCB, All others: AABB). I decided to go with the AABB because it was less work. The poem, The Gardener, the whisper and the seed, is a rewrite of this poem using ABCB throughout.