From Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006:

Hearts and flowers, that's how some people dismiss poetry, suggesting that's all there is to it, just a bunch of sappy poets weeping over love and beauty. Well, poetry is lots more than that. At times it's a means of honoring the simple things about us. To illustrate the care with which one poet observes a flower, here's Frank Steele, of Kentucky, paying such close attention to a sunflower that he almost gets inside it.

Sunflower

You're expected to see

only the top, where sky

scrambles bloom, and not

the spindly leg, hairy, fending off

tall, green darkness beneath.

Like every flower, she has a little

theory, and what she thinks

is up. I imagine the long

climb out of the dark

beyond morning glories, day lilies, four o'clocks

up there to the dream she keeps

lifting, where it's noon all day.