A California Home

Cool, irrigating streams refresh these lands,
And give to us all Eden did enclose
Of bud, and bloom, and fruit; for toiler’s hands
Have made these deserts blossom as the rose.
Heliotrope, honeysuckle, rose, all vie
With all the flowers, to please man’s eye.
These garden plants of God form coronals,
Festoons, wreaths; and trailing vines climb and twine
O’er all, and hide from view man’s citadel,
In worlds of bloom and beauty all the time!
A twelve month every year of flowers is ours
To pluck ripe luscious fruits and sweetest flowers;
Here winter’s drifting snow is petals sweet,
That winds detach and blow about our feet.