It’s Good to be Alive: Limericks in Bloom

By Neil Seeman

The economy crashes, and falters, and fails
You utter the wildest, most hair-raising wails,
“Should I buy, should I sell?”
But there’s no one who’ll tell.
It’s chaos around you and panic prevails.

Yet holiday weekends were meant to have fun
To warm weary bones in the heat of the sun
To soak aching toes
Forget all your woes
And bask in successes laboriously won.

Forget the travails; you are, thank God, alive
You know that, no matter, you’ll always survive
You know you have friends
Who will go to all ends
To be there for you till your spirits revive.

I’d always liked poking some innocent fun,
Joking when others were morbidly glum.
My friends would be crying
I’d smile at their sighing
And tell them that grieving was clearly “too dumb.”

So welcome the spring, when the world is ablossom
The view from my window’s amazingly awesome
Pansies, impatiens
In stunning variations
I think I will go and attempt now to grow some.

It’s spring, and you look, and you can’t fail to notice
That purple-blue buds have come out into focus
When the first bluish hue
Makes its yearly debut,
It’s time to rejoice at the birth of the crocus!

I exult at our hedge with its gorgeous azalea
It brightens our garden in splendid regalia
It’s pink, red and milky
Luxuriant and silky,
Each spring it parades its new paraphernalia.

When you see that your garden’s outfitted in frocks
Whose beauty just happens to knock off your socks
I bet that you’ve planted
Something enchanted -
Polychromatic and plentiful phlox.

Like gardens, we humans are, thank God, alive
We’re fruitful, productive and yes, we’ll survive!
We’ll laugh at our ills and our trifling distress
With humour and beauty we’ll battle our stress
It’s springtime, the season to thoroughly thrive.

It’s the springtime of hope and it’s time for good cheer
Now is the loveliest time of the year
Forget your finances
And broken romances
It’s time to rejoice with the ones you hold dear.

About the Author

Neil Seeman is Director and Primary Investigator of the Health Strategy Innovation Cell at Massey College, University of Toronto.