feathery and light
snow-like cotton seeds take flight
airborne fluffs of white
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Write a 5-7-5 Poem! This is a poem with only three lines. The catch is there is a strict syllable count. The first line has 5 syllables, second 7, third 5 again. See an example and details in the announcement. |
Author Notes
A poem inspired by the following article:
Cottonwood trees and the snows of June
by Larry Sessions in Earth | June 12, 2017
Cottonwood trees in the American West are one of nature's treasures. They yield shade, beautiful foliage and, in June, a kind of warm, fluffy "snow."
The June snows are white and fluffy, but warm and cottony rather than cold and crystaline. The snows of June consists of "cotton" from the cottonwood trees: small bits of cotton-like fibers enclosing a small green cottonwood seed. The cotton is nature's distribution agent, allowing the seeds to be widely dispersed as they are blown in the wind.
Sometimes, especially near a stand of cottonwoods, there is a flurry of cotton not unlike a slight flurry of winter snow. The little, bright white puffs of cotton waft up high in the sky and can shine, starlike, in strong sunlight.
In some cases the cotton can completely cover patches of ground, looking for all the world like the cold, wintery type of snow. The cotton blizzard typically lasts only a few weeks, and all is gone by July.
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