Muni Art 2023 Poem - The Botanical Gardens by Maya Van Artsdalen

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This page is part of Muni Art 2023.

The Botanical Gardens

Droopy trees, a fresh breeze, and small water streams.
That’s the botanical gardens.
Koi fish swim under your feet, and swans fly over your head.
Miso soup is served and steamy tea is poured.
Wind chimes flow and the scent of jasmine blows, tickling your nose.

Koi fish swim under your feet, and swans fly over your head.
Every step you take is a soft creak on the tall wooden bridge.
Wind chimes flow and the scent of jasmine blows, tickling your nose.
The flowers stain the tall, green grass.
That’s the botanical gardens.

Maya Van Artsdalen
Age 13

Maya Van Artsdalen, “The Botanical Gardens.” Reprinted with the permission of the author. All rights reserved. Muni Art 2023, San Francisco Beautiful, sfbeautiful.org

Artist Interpretations

Alice Wu
Pond with a swan, two jumping koi, water lilies and trees with flowers

Annie Aguilar
Water rippling with multicolor koi. A bridge with tea and miso

Isabel Lombardi-Coronel
Paper Collage with row of trees and mushrooms in the background. Grassy knoll with a path, flowers and mushrooms. A koi pond surrounded by stones filled with multicolored fish. A wooden bridge with a young person holding a yellow balloon.

Natalie Deiner
Whimsical koi with a third eye and tails like swans float in line in stream with banks patterned like leaves and circles beyond almost grass-like.

Vilma Ramirez
predominantly yellow objects such as plants and koi with line drawings of trees and sky and a Chinese pagoda in foreground