PEONIES ...

and my 100th blip! I wanted to celebrate my 100th with my favourite poem which happens to coincide with my favourite flower - luckily my 100th fell in the right season eh!!!
By the way, this poem NEEDS to be read out loud, slowly!

Peonies by Mary Oliver

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers
and they open....
pools of lace,
white and pink...
and all day the black ants climb over them
boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away
to their dark, underground cities...
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,
the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding
all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again...
beauty the brave, the exemplary,
blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming their dearness,
fill you arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

Cheers to all at Blip Central.... this is a wonderful place to be part of! Thanks!