Lisa Thorpe

Ode to Common Yarrow: Hold fast your dreams

This week I had a wonderful time working with my scrappy little friend Common Yarrow. I too am broadcasting my seeds in all types of soil, unsure which seed will take hold, which spot is hospitable, where nourishment is found. The Common Yarrow tells a story of persistence, and hope with her delicate stalks and tiny clutch of flowers arrayed like an umbrella offering shelter from the sun and the rain, an apt metaphor, I think, for the endeavor before me of leading a thought filled, art filled life.

Following is a poem I found  by Louise Driscoll that relates beautifully to this reflection.

Hold Fast

Hold fast your dreams!
Within your heart
Keep one still, secret spot
Where dreams may go,
And, sheltered so,
May thrive and grow
Where doubt and fear are not.
O keep a place apart,
Within your heart,
For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.
Let wish and magic work at will in you.
Be sometimes blind to sorrow. Make believe!
Forget the calm that lies
In disillusioned eyes.
Though we all know that we must die,
Yes you and I
May walk like gods and be
Even now at home in immortality.

We see so many ugly things—
Deceits and wrongs and quarrelings;
We know, alast we know
How quickly fade
The color in the west,
The bloom upon the flower,
The bloom upon the breast
And youth’s blind hour.
Yet keep within your heart
A place apart
Where little dreams may go,
May thrive and grow.
Hold fast—hold fast your dreams!

Louise Driscoll (1875-1957)