Handling Seed

“The seed – unless it dies it bides alone”,
Said He, The King, whose life lived without throne;
“Like farmers we – who hold their seed in store
And then each spring let go for evermore”.

Not any seed – the best seed in the land –
It’s cleaned with care; once planted out by hand
Now by machine, each spaced, and depth ensured,
Then buried deep, embedded in the earth.

Such spacing is just right for future growth
But it resists retrieval for its worth.
For days it lies no sign of future life,
Beyond the reach of farmer or his wife.

Then shoots appear, but still, no matter how
The farmer wants his food, he’s not a cow;
So he must wait – though hope’s for him now seen
Through summer days, till crops in sunshine gleam.

The risks are high, till crop is off and sold,
Rain, hail, and bugs, poor prices and the mould;
But letting go is still worth all the wait
Far more than holding seed or filling plate.

Then come the days of harvest and of sale
Of what’s survived – the end of this short tale –
Some things that go from life, not evil are,
But rather given to increase them by far.

The story goes of farmer from ’round here
Put everything he had and he held dear
Into the ground and gambled on success –
Throughout the season rode the rising stress.

They called him “Wheat King” for his daring ways
But this last time the stress cut short his days –
He walked away – the pressure got so great,
The bumper crop not his – he couldn’t wait.

A wiser man, no fame or fortune his,
Told me one day a better way of biz:
“Don’t ever gamble quarter with your home
It’s ‘loser’s seed’, without it you’re alone.

“You’ll never starve if you home-quarter keep,
You start again with cow, or pig, or sheep,
Thus harness up the power of growth again
Till summer days boast waving fields of grain.

“So farmers walk a tightrope with two sides
Hold back too much, in poverty reside;
Risk all, with factors you cannot control,
You stand to lose it all – too great a toll.

“It’s not so much a point that is exact,
More like a range – there’s give and take, and tack –
How we do risk depends on how we’re wired,
Where comfort find twix cautious and inspired”.

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