Annie Klier Newcomer
His Floral Crown

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt

Notice his eyes surrounded by tributaries
that run into a face overflowing
with meaning. Empowered, he refuses
to give into the marks of time. Like a cunning
seabird with wings that fold, his wisdom swoops down and manifests the answers I’ve been angling for. He reels me in, intent to instruct.

Eventually leaves turn to compost,
serve as sustenance for dangling acorns substituting for pearls under his floral crown. But not before his knowledge embellishes
the beauty of the rose. The mystery
behind his aging eyes, a revelation:
The Aged nurture the Youth.

Annie Klier Newcomer founded a not-for-profit, Kansas City Spirit that served children in metropolitan Kansas for a decade. Annie volunteers in chess and poetry after school programs in Kansas City, Missouri. She and her husband and the staff of the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens are working to develop The Emily Dickinson Garden in hopes of bringing art and poetry educational programs to their community. Annie helms the Flapper Press Poetry Café—dedicated to celebrating poets from around the world and to encouraging everyone to both read and write poetry!`