ABC Wednesday
May 1st, 2013

The letter this week is P
Perfect for Peonies

 

With a Paean of Praise from Mary Oliver in her beautiful poem "Peonies"

 

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready

to break my heart

as the sun rises,

as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

 

and they open -

pools of lace,

white and pink -and all day the black ants climb over them,

 

boring their deep and mysterious holes

into the curls,

craving the sweet sap,

taking it away

 

to their dark, underground cities -

and all day

under the shifty wind,

as in a dance to the great wedding,

 

the flowers bend their bright bodies,

and tip their fragrance to the air,

and rise,

their red stems holding

 

all that dampness and recklessness

gladly and lightly,

and there it is again -

beauty the brave, the exemplary,

 

blazing open.

Do you know this world?

Do your cherish your humble and silky life?

Do you adore the green grass with its terror beneath?

 

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,

and softly,

and exclaiming of their dearness,

fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

 

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,

their eagerness

to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are

nothing, forever?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more wonderful Ps click here and push over to ABC Wednesday where Mrs. Nesbitt and her perky helpers provide you with many pleasant and piquant pictures.