“Doing what deserves to be written,
writing what deserves to be read,
living to make the world a happier place.”
That’s what Pliny the Elder said.

He quoted “In Vino Veritas,”
from some older, and wiser, gent,
but he put it in one of his gardening books,
and so he must have meant

that we should drink some wine,
as we tend to our gardening plants,
’cause he wrote about wine and grapes from a vine,
and insects, and mammals, and ants.

He wrote a few volumes on drugs,
from herbs and from flowers and bees,
and extracts from garlic and opium plants,
and that amber might just come from trees.

That cucumbers grow towards the water,
and turnips provoke in one, lust,
and amber prevents some dementia disease,
and many more things that we trust.

His Naturalis Historia,
future gardening books did define.
And if Latin you try, then you can still buy
all 37 volumes on-line.

 

Bob McGinness is a freelance writer living in Columbia, South Carolina.

 

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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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4 Responses

  2. David Watt

    This is a well-crafted piece which educates and uplifts in equal measure.

    Reply
  3. Joan Carol Fullmore

    This is SO GOOD! Will go on my favorites list – love reading it out loud!

    Reply

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