Planting a Pip: What Are We Willing to Grow?

Planting a Pip: What Are We Willing to Grow?

A Reflection on Kuma Raj Subedi’s Poetry

By V.T.N.M.

Abstract

Kuma Raj Subedi’s poem Planting a Pip uses the image of a seed to reflect on resilience, identity, belonging, difference, and the choices people make about what deserves to grow. The seed has survived difficult conditions, yet its future depends upon whether someone is willing to plant and care for it. In this reflection, I consider the seed as a metaphor for people, cultures, histories, and possibilities that may be judged before they are understood. The poem encourages us to question the boundaries we place around belonging and to consider what we may lose when we reject what appears unfamiliar.

Featured in Krafty Page ChronicleS

Planting a Pip is featured in the international literary conversation of Krafty Page ChronicleS, within the publication’s collaboration with The Rhythm of Vietnam. The collaboration brings writers and perspectives from different cultural backgrounds into one shared literary space.

When a Seed Becomes a Question

When I first read Planting a Pip, I was drawn to its simplicity.

A seed.

Some soil.

Water.

A garden.

But the poem is not really about gardening.

The seed becomes a way of asking us something much more human: What do we do with what we do not recognize?

That question stayed with me because people can be treated much like the seed in this poem. We are often judged by appearance, origin, history, or circumstance before anyone takes the time to understand what brought us there.

Survival Leaves a History

The seed in Subedi’s poem has survived extreme heat.

That detail matters.

Before anyone decides what the seed is worth, it has already survived something difficult.

I think people are much the same.

We meet someone and see only the person standing in front of us. We do not see every hardship that person has survived. We do not see every disappointment, loss, sacrifice, or moment of courage that helped shape who they are.

Sometimes resilience is visible.

Sometimes it is not.

The seed reminds us that survival can exist quietly.

Native or Foreign?

One of the questions in the poem asks us to consider whether the plant is native or foreign.

This immediately brings the idea of belonging into focus.

Who decides what belongs?

Why does unfamiliar automatically become unwanted?

These questions reach beyond the garden.

Culture, migration, identity, and human relationships are all shaped by ideas of belonging. We can become comfortable with what we know and suspicious of what we do not.

But unfamiliar does not mean without value.

Beyond Appearance

The poem also introduces the contrast between dark-skinned and fair complexion.

For me, this is where the metaphor becomes especially meaningful.

Appearance can tell us what something looks like. It cannot tell us everything about what something is.

A person’s complexion cannot tell us their character.

A person’s accent cannot tell us their intelligence.

A person’s birthplace cannot tell us their worth.

And a person's history should not become a reason to deny their humanity.

Subedi places these ideas inside the image of a plant, allowing the reader to see how easily judgment can take root.

What Are We Willing to Nurture?

Planting requires care.

A seed cannot simply be placed in the ground and forgotten.

It needs attention. It needs patience. It needs the opportunity to become what it was capable of becoming.

People need some of the same things.

Sometimes a person does not need someone to define them. They need someone willing to give them room to grow.

The same can be said about cultures and communities. Understanding requires patience. Connection requires willingness. Acceptance requires us to look beyond the first impression.

The Question That Remains

The final question of the poem is the one I continue to carry:

Would you still weed this out if you had a chance?

It is a simple question, but I do not think it has a simple answer.

How many people have we dismissed because we did not understand them?

How many possibilities have we rejected because they did not look familiar?

How many stories have we judged before hearing them?

Perhaps the poem asks us to slow down before making that decision.

Beyond the Garden

For me, Planting a Pip is ultimately about possibility.

The seed represents something that has survived and still has the potential to become something more.

That can be a person.

A culture.

A memory.

A dream.

Even a relationship between people who might otherwise never have crossed paths.

As writers from different cultural backgrounds come together, poetry can become its own kind of garden. Different experiences can exist beside one another without having to become identical.

That is part of what makes literary collaboration meaningful.

The Poem as Published

Kuma Raj Subedi

Planting a Pip

About Kuma Raj Subedi

Kuma Raj Subedi, born in 1997, is a bilingual Australian poet and translator. He is a recipient of the Best Poet of the Event Award at the International Nazrul Poetry Festival 2023 in Bangladesh. An ESL lecturer, Subedi writes about nature, female suffrage, religion, memories, and identity. His poetry has appeared in international journals, magazines, anthologies, and reviews.

What Will We Choose to Grow?

I think the beauty of this poem is that it begins with something so small and ends with a question much larger than the garden.

We all carry histories.

We all carry differences.

We all carry something that has survived.

Perhaps before deciding what belongs and what does not, we should take the time to understand what is standing in front of us.

A seed may not look like much at first.

Neither does possibility.

But given the opportunity, both can become something we never expected.

That is the question I take from Planting a Pip:

What will we choose to nurture, and what might we destroy simply because we never took the time to understand it?

Reference

Subedi, K. R. (2026). Planting a pip. In Krafty Page ChronicleS: Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation. KVI Network Creations.

Reflection by Vo Thi Nhu Mai

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