Poetry Thursday #12
Today's challenge is: "Write a poem motivated by an image — preferably one that is in the form of a photo you can post with your poem. If you don’t have a picture of it, that’s okay. Tell us about the image in the backstory, which you can post before your poem. Or, if you’re really daring, grab your camera and get out there and capture an image and use it as motivation for a poem."
This was written some time ago. I've enjoyed pulling it out and rereading it, and didn't change a word. It was inspired by a very real yellow rose in a real garden on a July day so hot it was breathless, but with a slight breeze. The rose's participation with the two not-meant-to-be lovers, including its dried and desicated end, is all imagination. Or maybe it's a memory--like the rose, I've forgotten. Lamentations might have been a better book in which to place such a flower, but it had too many syllables. It has fabulous phrases and images of bitter tears if you ever need that for a poem. However, isn't the book of Job closer to the symbol of all that can go wrong, will?
The last rose
by Norma Bruce
July 1997
Yellow rose in the garden
Blushed peach by her cheeks,
Splashed pale with his white passion.
Yellow rose in the sunlight
Fragrant in their hands,
Waving good-byes to July.
Yellow rose in the clippers
Snipped between kisses,
Pricking her finger crimson.
Yellow rose in the crystal
Filled with his hot tears,
Shedding thorns against the glass.
Yellow rose in the Bible
Faded summer joy,
Pressed between pages of Job.Source URL: http://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/2007/03/poetry-thursday-12-todays-challenge-is.html
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