With soil and sunlight
Seedling to great height
It grows
Stem standing upright
Designed to invite
Your nose
Bask in colors bright
I gift you tonight
A rose
* * *
Author's Note: The Lai poetry form is of French origin, and it consists of one or more nine-line stanzas, and an aabaabaab rhyme scheme. The lines with an "a" rhyme have five syllables, and the lines with a "b" rhyme have two syllables, so it is 5-5-2 repeated three times.