'Growing Poetry'

I know he is a poet
though he never wrote a poem,
and I doubt that he
has ever even read one.
He is much too busy growing
his poems of the soil,
living poems of his toil;
he does not have time
to write a dead one.
I know he is a poet
by the way he says hello
then leans upon his hoe
to chat awhile.
I know he is a poet
for I've heard him talk to flowers
in the early morning hours,
and I've read
the lyric of his smile.