Nature's First and Last Green is Golden

Nature's first and last green is gold

The hue to which all life is beholden

With eyes open or closed the warmth

Within and without unfolds

From seed to flower to sheaf

Howsoever it may seem brief

We are transported beyond

The confines of a single season

As from dawn to dusk to dawn

It is gold alone that endures

Vincent van Gogh, Soir d'été, 1888.

This poem is in reply to Robert Frost's poem which I have copied below.  Much as I admire Frost's poem I think he rather misses the point, which Van Gogh captured on a summer night altogether much more clearly.

Nature’s first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold

Her early leaf’s a flower

But only so an hour

Then leaf subsides to leaf

So Eden sank to grief;

So dawn goes down to day

Nothing gold can stay