Stephen's Photo

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

only bugs can ride peonies

peony

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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 love this world?
Do you 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?

(Mary Oliver's poem to go with your exquisite picture!)

thank-you, Robin

Jigme Datse said...

This is really heartrenching. In a really good way. You take such amazing, powerful photographs. I think you have something there that I sometimes wish I was able to pull in my photographs. Maybe I'll start posting some photos when I get a digital camera. I actually have one from last year that I'd like to post, I'm no longer sure of just what it was that produced the picture. I just think it's really a dramatic picture of a sunrise (normally I'm not up at that time of day, but I was this day).

Jessica

fotomoto

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a guy with a camera.