Marriage is a Garden, By Carolyn Alley

Marriage is a garden
you reap what you sow
If you nourish your seedlings
They'll flourish and grow

Plant potatoes of kindness
And plain common sense
Let squash be the damper of intolerance

The greens will bring loving
and giving of hope
And onions persistance
To stay with and cope

Plant corn there for humor
for relish as well
And berries for sweetness
to make all things jell.

Add well chosen spices
To give life a zing
Like interests and hobbies
and doing your thing.

Your practical garden
Is just about done
But the true earnest gardener
has barely begun

Grow flowers for color
and warmth and aroma
the roses for passion
the daisies to dance.

Bulbs of renewal
Every year a new spring
Vines flowers with urges
to both climb and to cling

Plant one in every corner
An evergreen tree
Reciprical of trust and loyalty

This is your garden
protect every seed
Water with sorrow
And weed well from greed

Silence will parch it
And spite will bring frost
An ill-tended marriage
is one early lost

But one that is worked in
is fertile and deep
Reaps bushels of loving
To share and to keep.