Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Geraniums, two poems, and my people...

Geraniums are a very common plant in the warmer climates such as Southern California. They grow outdoors and rarely die. I think of them as a poor man's rose, and I have many of them.

Several years ago on a drive to the beach, I saw a window planter overflowing with a pink and white geranium that made your eyes seem out of focus. I liked that, so I started "collecting" geraniums. Unlike my rose bushes which have specialty names which I know, the names of my geraniums are forgotten.

Roses are special gifts: treasured and fussed over. Geraniums are inexpensive, usually self-bought, and often under-appreciated. Until now...






Flowers are like poems, or poems are like flowers. Both are like the people who populate my world...

Unfolding Bud by Naoshi Koriyama

One is amazed
By a water-lily bud
Unfolding
With each passing day,
Taking on a richer color
And new dimensions.

One is not amazed,
At a first glance,
By a poem,
Which is as tight-closed
As a tiny bud.

Yet one is surprised
To see the poem
Gradually unfolding.
Revealing it's rich inner self,
As one reads it
Again
And over again.


Many people rush through life, overlooking the common beauties and simple pleasures. They miss the geraniums. A fellow blogger (Saphron) recently wrote this poem:

I wonder.
How long
will you love that my stories
always have a thousand
unimportant details

And tolerate my scattered brain
and check on
the status
of my dreams

How long
will I be fascinating

(the purple light
of a summer night...and so on)

How long
will my imperfections
be beautiful

Don't worry

Everything is great

We both
are perfect
today.

But

I do wonder


Many people only find satisfaction in "the shiny new." And that can make you wonder if they'll grow tired of us. Fewer are lovers of geraniums, or daisies, or wild flowers: Buttercup? If you can appreciate the subtleties and wonders of life, then life will afford you many plants, poems, and people worth knowing, for a lifetime.




2 comments:

  1. I like this - "Many people only find satisfaction in "the shiny new." And that can make you wonder if they'll grow tired of us." When you move, switch churches, etc. etc. you quickly realize how quickly people get tired of you. And you appreciate your dear family and the friends that stay your friends - even if neither of the above are shiny and new.

    Joy in the "ordinary" can take us a long way, eh?

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  2. Ahh, so much to say!

    You have so many wonderful photographs to share. I always wonder what you'll find to post next. And I like that they always have a beauty in them, though the style varies.

    You *gasp* quoted my poem! :D Wow...am I famous now? Lol...I'm happy you liked it. I laughed really hard at the "27 weeks."

    And thank you for the poem you quoted in your comment, it was such a fun read; and for the offering up of the "Dark Knight of the Soul" book - I owe myself a trip to Barnes & Noble soon, and I'm gonna find that and elbow somebody out of a chair and read through it. :)

    I am off to share the Koriyama poem with my poet friend.

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