Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Peonies - 10:00 AM, Day Six - Faded




Peonies at Dusk


White peonies blooming along the porch

send out light

while the rest of the yard grows dim.
Outrageous flowers as big as human

heads! They’re staggered

by their own luxuriance: I had

to prop them up with stakes and twine.
The moist air intensifies their scent,

and the moon moves around the barn

to find out what it’s coming from.
In the darkening June evening

I draw a blossom near, and bending close

search it as a woman searches

a loved one’s face.



-- Jane Kenyon

5 comments:

  1. I just took ours out after they fell in reverence of petals all over Quan Yin's altar. I still find an incredible amount of beauty in fading flowers, be it because age helps in discovering that not all things new hold what we once thought of beauty or because they do hold the true essence of beauty in its most perfect transmutation.

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  2. Beautiful, even faded. Reminds me of my grandmother. In both meanings.

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