BLOOM by Emily Dickinson
Bloom — is Result — to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would cause one scarcely to suspect
The minor Circumstance
Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian —
To pack the Bud — oppose the Worm —
Obtain its right of Dew —
Adjust the Heat — elude the Wind —
Escape the prowling Bee
Great Nature not to disappoint
Awaiting Her that Day —
To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility —
Having re-encountered Emily Dickinson’s “Bloom” via Maria Popova’s The Marginalian, I share it as inspiration and purpose for educators’ “profound/ Responsibility” and opportunity. A “Flower,” a person “casually glance[d]” doesn’t announce the whole, holistic, enlivening process of their growth—of their own and their teachers’ work “So intricately done”: the “offer[ing] as a Butterfly/ To the Meridien,” “pack[ing] the Bud,” “oppos[ing] the Worm,” “Adjust[ing] the Heat,” “elud[ing] the Wind,” “Escap[ing] the prowling Bee,” and more. All to the “Result” and its learned “profound/ Responsibility—”
