By adewpearl
jack in the pulpit
blooms below woods' canopy
splendor in the shade
| Author Notes | I have written in the past haiku about a dandelion and a buttercup and got this great idea to write more wildflower haiku to make a series. I had that great idea over two hours ago - and now I have these twelve words to show for it. The next time I get a great idea, just shoot me, please! :-) |
By adewpearl
honeysuckle vines
festoon my fence with flowers
fragrant yellow bells
| Author Notes | If the fact that these flowers are twined around a man-made fence makes this some special subset of haiku according to one of the many hundreds of haiku rules, just tell me the darned name and I'll change the description. :-) |
By adewpearl
florid poppies bloom
where blood once flowed for freedom
fresh memorials
| Author Notes |
One of the most beloved of all poems, In Flanders Fields, was written in rondeau form by Canadian poet and soldier, John McCrae, after he buried a comrade who died in the fighting at Flanders, Belgium in May of 1915 during WWI.
For years paper poppies have been sold on Remembrance Day in Europe and on Memorial Day in the U.S. to commemorate the sacrifice of those who have died in the service of freedom. McCrae made famous the wildflower poppies that grow over the graves of the war dead in Flanders. This haiku in my wildflower series is but a humble nod to the greatness of his poem and the power of the symbol he created. |
By adewpearl
pristine white petals
swirl round daisy center's gold
innocence gone wild
By adewpearl
milkweed pods pour forth
seeds from silken filaments
freedom spawns new life
By adewpearl
clover offers bees
nectar steeped in summer's sweet
honey on the stem
| Author Notes |
Sorry about the picture for flower purists - I know the flower in the picture is a thistle. I could find this great picture with the bee or a lovely picture of a clover with a butterfly but not the perfect picture of a clover with a bee.
Clover is a major source of nectar for honey bees. Clover honey is popular for its mild flavor, but customers are warned that it is not a consistent flavor as those darned bees stray to other flowers, rarely collecting only from clover. So taste varies depending on the proportion of nectar that comes from clover. Evidently, the paler the honey, the more likely it is close to pure clover honey. And honey made from summer clover is considered better quality than earlier spring honey. |
By adewpearl
elegance resides
in a ladyslipper's stance
beauty beyond price
| Author Notes | The ladyslipper is a wild orchid, every bit as beautiful as those sold by florists for outrageous prices, but on public display for anyone to enjoy. Variations of the ladyslipper are the state flower of New Hampshire and Minnesota and the provincial flower of Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. In Minnesota there is even the Ladyslipper Scenic Byway that has a website to update when in any given year they are blooming. It is not legal to sell ladyslippers in Minnesota and in many areas they are considered such a rarity that they are protected as endangered. According to the caption in FanArt, the one pictured here is from Manitoba. What a treasure it must be to come upon one in areas of moist shade where they grow. No florist can set a price on that. |
By adewpearl
bachelor's buttons
bedazzle fields with color
blaze of azure blue
| Author Notes |
This is for my FS buddy, Loyd Taylor, whose favorite color is blue. Bachelor's buttons, another name for cornflowers, are cornflower blue, a shade close to azure blue. Flower experts say they are the truest blue flower. They even used to be used to extract pigment for cyan/blue dye. Ever wonder when you were a kid using cornflower Crayola crayons why a blue crayon was called cornflower? It's because these wildflowers often used to grow in corn fields before modern farming methods made that less common.
The Bedazzler is a craft tool used by children and hobbyists to decorate cloth - one sort of staples rhinestones onto tee shirts and jeans, etc. to bedazzle/decorate them. There are no photos of this wildflower that I can find on FanArt, hence my use of this whimsical painting. |
By adewpearl
smatterings of sun
infuse each golden petal
brown-eyed Susans glow
| Author Notes |
Several websites state the black-eyed or brown-eyed Susan - they're different names for the same flower, is the most common wildflower in the U.S. It is the state flower of Maryland, as anyone who has ever watched the Preakness leg of the Triple Crown can tell you.
I don't know if smatterings is used in all countries represented on site as a colloquial way of saying small quantities, so in case it isn't, that's how I'm using it. |
By adewpearl
verdant meadowlands
play host to vibrant purples
viva violets
| Author Notes | There are almost 500 species of violets throughout the world. It is a tiny flower but one that goes almost anywhere. In another poem months ago I wrote about the legendary modesty of the violet, this flower that grows low to the ground and bows its head beneath its heart shaped leaves, but in this haiku I've chosen the other side of its personality. Green fields can become almost purple when enough violets are growing in them, and the color is not modest at all. The use of viva, meaning something like, long live, in the final line, is in the spirit of sayings like Viva Zapata or Viva Las Vegas. |
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