It’s new moon today and I’ve nothing to say. Rather, I have plenty to say but little which would be helpful to me or to you. I offer a meditation in flowers.
Once upon a time there were no flowers at all... A little while ago--about one hundred million years...
...just a short time before the close of the Age of Reptiles, there occurred a soundless, violent explosion. It lasted millions of years, but it was an explosion, nevertheless. It marked the emergence of the angiosperms--the flowering plants.
Flowers changed the face of the planet. Without them, the world we know--even man himself--would never have existed.
So wrote Loren Eisley in The Immense Journey, first edition published in 1957 when I was ten.
Glacier, or avalanche lilies, grow in the Canadian Rockies from montane to sub-alpine, chasing the snow upwards as spring transforms into alpine summer. They can be seen growing right through the snow and in meadows carpeted with their loveliness surrounded by tiny white spring beauty.
The first time I encountered such a meadow was at Healey Pass, hiking with Dad one June in the late 1960’s. Many years later I wrote a poem about my first attempt to photograph avalanche lilies on that glorious afternoon.
I lie on the ground in homage gaze into the face of lily her petals curl against blue sky like yellow bird wings eager for spring she thrusts green heads through snow twin leaves furl round reddish stems which rise six inches eight inches curl dangle a green bud six yellow petals force an opening a downward facing tangle of petals then tips unfurl skyward reveal stamens coated with deep red pollen
March is the month of my birth. I love its growing light, its promise.
Thanks Kathryn
I should have added the name of the essay which is "How Flowers Changed the World", and are still doing so. Happy poems to you.
foxes with silver tongues are much appreciated