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.