Backyard blooms have their own tongue—overgrown, thorned, offering—while jasmine speaks softly by my front door. While I cannot claim to have a green thumb, I am glad for these floral friends who continue to grace me with their presence each year.
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Poetic Sundays: Of the Language of Backyard Blooms
Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is inspired by flowers! The word florilegium refers to a book of botanical illustrations of decorative plants and also a collection of excerpts from other writings. In her poem, “Florilegium,” Canadian poet Sylvia Legris gathers together many five-lined stanzas that describe flowers but also play with the sounds of their names, their medical (or poisonous) qualities, and historical aspects of herbalism. So our challenge is to pick a flower or two (or a whole bouquet, if we like) from this online edition of Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers, and then write our own poem in which we muse on our selections’ names and meanings.
Florilegium of Hesitation
a florilegium of what overgrows and what offers itself quietly—
I have a dozen or more roses adorning my backyard now—
red-yellow-orange-pink, multiple hues too—
as if they can’t make up their mind
to be orange or not,
or a little yellow and a bit red—
like hesitation blooming
backyard scribble: roses clamoring over each other — with undecided color
Do I gather them—
petals pressing into themselves,
love—overgrown, speaking all at once, with all it holds—
thorned, insistent.
Or do I walk instead to my front yard
where by the door, amiable jasmine lends herself to birds,
standing next to hibiscus—quiet elegance—
a softer presence,
not asking, just offering
front yard note: jasmine breathing easy, nidus for warblers
And I am somewhere between them—
thorn still catching my hem,
jasmine touching my wrist.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites
Recently
On My Blog & Homefront
I have been on spring break this week from school, and used it for catching up on the mountain of assignments that were pending for my credential work. You see, asynchronous classes sound cool, until they are not! But the week is over now.
Anyway, here are the posts since my last Scribblings (and I wanted to keep up with these too):
- Phileas’ Passport: Peril at Pondicherry Port
- Operose? Not at All: Wondrous Words, Poetry, and Books
- Notes from Nests
- M is for Mondegreen Magic and Marvelous Words
- Love These Lovely L Words: Lethologica and Lots More
- Kibitz with Katydids: Of Imagination and Childhood Memory
- Sunday Scribblings #250: Echoes that Warm the Heart
Upcoming
On My Blog & Homefront
This Week’s Celebrations
Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)
- Literary birthdays this week of April include: the 20th celebrates Mary Hoffman, Sebastian Faulks, and Rebecca Malakai; Alistair Maclean and Charlotte Brontë on the 21st; Janet Evanovich, Louise Glück, Henry Fielding, and Vladimir Nabokov on the 22nd; William Shakespeare on the 23rd; Sue Grafton and Robert Penn Warren on the 24th; James Fenton on 25th; Lisa Unger 26th
- It is Big Word Day on the 21st, so sesquipedalians, rejoice! And also Thank You for Libraries Day!
- The 23rd of April is International English Language Day, World Book Night, and Talk Like Shakespeare Day.
- Followed by National Library Workers Day on the 25th
- April 26th is Independent Bookstore Day
Foodie Celebrations
- April 20th observes National Cheddar Fries Day and National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day
- The 21st lets us enjoy National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day
- Followed by National Jelly Bean Day on April 22nd. Do you have a favorite Jelly Bean flavor?
- It is National Cherry Cheesecake Day and National English Muffin Day on April 23rd
- Up next, on the 25th of April, it is National Zucchini Bread Day
- While the 26th of April is National Pretzel Day
Other Celebrations
- National Look Alike Day and Volunteer Recognition Day are observed on the 20th of April
- It is National Kindergarten Day and World Creativity and Innovation Day on the 21st of April
- April 22nd is International Mother Earth Day
- The 23rd observes International Girls In ICT Day, National Picnic Day and National Take a Chance Day as well as Trails Day. So take a chance, pick a new trail, and have a picnic somewhere on it.
- It is National Skipping Day on the 24th.
- April 25th celebrates World Penguin Day
- The 26th happens to be World Intellectual Property Day, National Audubon Day, and National Richter Scale Day. It is also Get Organized Day
Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings
So dear reader, you have reached the end of this Sunday Scribblings! As always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this post. And do let me know if you plan to celebrate any of these mentioned celebrations this coming week/month?
Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon. Also linking up to UBC, NaPoWriMo
And you can find all my A-Z+ posts (this year and previous years’ as well) here:
