garden

Peony Pondering 

My Garden of Prayer

“My garden beautifies my yard
and adds fragrance to the air…

But it is also my cathedral 

and my quiet place of prayer…

So little do we realize

that ‘the glory and the power’

Of He who made the universe

lies hidden in a flower.”

~ Helen Steiner Rice

The Allure of Poppies

“And now, my beauties, something with poison in it, I think. With poison in it, but attractive to the eye, and soothing to the smell. Poppies…Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeep. Now they’ll sleeeep!”

– Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz. 

A Yellow Tulip Smile 

The Tulip Bed

“The May sun—whom
all things imitate—
that glues small leaves to
the wooden trees
shone from the sky
through blue gauze clouds
upon the ground. 
Under the leafy trees
where the suburban streets
lay crossed,
with houses on each corner,
tangled shadows had begun
to join
the roadway and the lawns. 
With excellent precision
the tulip bed
inside the iron fence
upreared its gaudy
yellow, white, and red,
rimmed round with grass,
reposedly.”
~ William Carlos Williams