2/18/2005




The Geniuses Among Us

They take us by surprise, these tall perennials
that jut like hollyhocks above the canopy

of all the rest of us—bright testimonials

to the scale of human possibility.

They come to bloom for every generation,

blazing with extraordinary notions

from the taproots of imagination—

dazzling us with incandescent visions.

And soon, the things we never thought would happen

start to happen: the solid fences

of reality begin to soften,

crumbling into fables and romances—

and we turn away from where we've been

to a new place, where light is pouring in.


-Marilyn Taylor
Originally appeared in Poetry