Roses: Escape to Paradise – The message of the rose – Weekly Photo Challenge

Escape to Paradise                                                                
Temporary

The city garden of June is

Filled with a magical perfume

As in an ancient garden of Persia

Lush with many roses.

 

Visitors meander between rows

Bending to savor the fragrances up close,

Which waft across the lawns

In the summers warm wind.

 

Watching the wind and patiently waiting

For the stiller moments in between,

I focus my lens upon the beauty while

Caressed by sweets scents

I capture breathtaking colors performing subtle changes

Caught in a moment as the bees and dragonflies

Hover and explore within my frame.

 

Then I think of you and your garden

Of a hundred rose bushes…

And last year you coarsely told me,

“Ah, I ripped them out

Because of the drought.”

 

Some years ago we stood together

In this very garden in August

The roses were blighted from weather and insects.

With a sense of failure, I regretted seeing

the garden in such a dilapidated state,

through your eyes.

 

Taking the paths, I refocus and compose,

The bursting blooms strain towards the sun.

With pride in clusters of colors

While some hang heavy

On their stems and dip to earth,

As if such beauty is a burden.

 

Luxurious perfumed ladies dressed for tea

Gather on the lawns – a party of flowers –

Dazzling in the sunshine arch their heads

Toward the sky with elegance that mocks

The ordinary, the withered, and the past.

Their petals unfold in delicate pastel shapes

And other’s dressed in bold reds, purple and orange hues

Compete for admiration. It is a feast for the eyes.

Each and every one calls to life!

 

A rhythm of words moves through me.

As the bushes pose and sway

For the young lovers,

Who pass me, enthralled in each other,

The flowers nod their approval.

 

Each blossom, more beautiful than the last,

Is added to last June’s crop from the garden

to my cold frame photos of flowery memory.

Each year is beheld in roses for the winter review.

Clearly the roses say beauty is now.

The past cannot return, after the last roses of summer fade.

 

 

Many Thanks to the gardeners of the Lake Harriet Rose Garden in Minneapolis Minnesota and The City of Minneapolis Parks and Recreation workers.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen.

Have a peaceful day.