Day 19/20: National Poetry Month
Prompts include flowers, family, persona poems, and “No _____” Don’t tempt me with facile and childish responses, like “Flowers need fertilizer. No sh–”
I remember making a terrarium, once. This was probably during the houseplant craze of the 1970s. I had some hanging plants – mostly of the hard-to-kill variety, like asparagus fern and tradescantia zebrini. Shefflera, jade, a withering African violet, too, I’m sure.
Our yard was bordered on one side by a sunny yellow forsythia hedge and bisected, in the back, by white and purple lilacs. Flowering trees – redbud, pear, and apple – also thrived. In the front, we had tulips. My mother loved tulips and planted rows and rows of bulbs each spring.
Hothouse Flowers, Whispering of Death
No hand to guide them towards the sun,
the gardener’s gone, neglecting them.
Each slender stem, with thought and care
selected, serves as double agent—
emissary of despair.
Blush sprigs of oleander shade
soft sphagnum moss and yellow coltsfoot,
tucked within the killing confines
of a glass terrarium
sealed tight with lilac tears.
Other National Poetry Month Posts
- National Poetry Month, Texas Style!
- Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts
- Bee Sting: Day 2 of National Poetry Month
- Cacophony and CBD: Day 3 in Nonsense Verse and Found Poetry
- Technically, a Writer: Day 3 of National Poetry Month
- Dive: Day 4 of National Poetry Month
- Storm Front: Day 4 of National Poetry Month
- Energized: Day 5 of National Poetry Month
- Grump: Day 5 ½ of National Poetry Month
- Future Frittered Away: Day 6 of National Poetry Month
- Hell, Hell, Hell: Day 7 (More or Less) of National Poetry Month
- Insomnia: Day 8 of National Poetry Month
- Juxtaposition: Day 9 of National Poetry Month
- Knife Edge: Day 10 of National Poetry Month
- Lost a Day: Day 11 of National Poetry Month
- Many Definitions: Day 12 of National Poetry Month
- New Form – Quadrille Quaiku: Day 13 of National Poetry Month
- Ode to Imagination: Day 14 of National Poetry Month
- Pixellated People: Day 15 of National Poetry Month
- Quintessential, Querulous Quintet: Day 16/17 of National Poetry Month
- Renewal: Day 18 of National Poetry Month
- Secrets of the Terrarium: Day 19/20 of National Poetry Month
Your Turn!
Do you enjoy gardening? Do your plants stay outside, or do you let them in the house? Are they wild and weedy or well-behaved? Have you ever made a terrarium?
Yes to all the questions – at the moment, thanks to allergies and absolutely no direct sunlight coming in the house, plants must stay outside, but I had several plants in my bedroom growing up. My attitude toward landscaping is more of the “if you survive, you get to stay.” and I prefer plants that need trimming back rather than encouraged to grow.