a secret garden hidden
buds hold tight within themselves
through winter days and nights
explodes with sudden laughter
in puffs of white delight
and with a lingering chuckle
petaled memories fly
free of clinging branches
into the brightening sky
“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anais Nin
“Earth laughs in flowers.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sheila Hurst 