today is of flowers
today is of flowers:
the calendar says it’s Spring,
the days are lengthening,
yet the cold still freezes its fortresses in the North,
most of the trees do not yet venture forth,
but some, like the sarvis and the maple, are impetuous,
as if they want to push ahead
to be first in line for the Sun,
these days we seek the high coves
whose floors will soon be darkened
by a full canopy of leaves
when the trees get going,
now is the time of flowering plants
to make their proverbial hay,
like bees to pollen, we seek out a bounty of glory:
white trillium on steep slope,
great chick weed and violets, toothwort,
yellow trillium, wood and rue anemone, bishop’s cap,
hepatica, stone crop, spring beauty,
and a profusion of fringed phacelia,
we find where trout lilies are exuberant in their flaring,
where ginger’s succulent leaves shelter the cornucopia of their flowers,
we seek blood root, a true ephemeral,
it doesn’t show itself for long,
mostly we find its leaves, memorial markers,
we find a few flowering blood root
whose erect perfection centers our world for awhile,
the dinosaurs did not know the flower,
mammals and flowering plants have evolved together,
we love to let such gratuitous beauty
center our world, for awhile.
by Henry H. Walker
April 1, ‘18
April 1, ‘18
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