Poppies

Is it the great circle of being? The never-ending cycle of life? The grand procession of the seasons?

I dunno, but the tulips, irises, magnolias, and now even the lilacs are pretty much done until next year. Cue the clematis and the poppies.

By the time I got outside this week, the poppies were past their best – but even their second-best is pretty fine.

2-photo collage of CA poppies

CA poppy seed head with petal

Seeds lift in the breeze;
pink leather melts into green.
A start and an end.

2-photo collage of poppy seed head and petal

 

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8 Responses to Poppies

  1. Tom Watson says:

    More beautiful pictures!
    Tom

  2. More thought-provoking haiku!

    I love the layered plays on words. Your haiku “starts,” naturally, with “Seeds” and “ends” with “end,” implying a cycle that has propagated endlessly despite the implied finality of the last word. The fading of one poppy’s beauty recalls the Renaissance preoccupation with “mutability,” so often focused on the rose.

    The vermilion, curling petals in the first poppy photo remind me of the poppies that I learned to watch for in my paternal grandmother’s flower border, surely the highlight of the season. Now, I realize that part of their fascination was the mystery of their flamboyant display in the garden of such a prim and proper lady.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Laurna – What a delightful grandmother-memory and association. As for the prim/proper lady having a flamboyant flower, we truly are legion.

  3. Wonderful flowers and wonderful photos! We are coming into the season you have passed. Lilacs are out, and my petunias in pots are beginning to bloom.

  4. Marion says:

    WOW, that’s very sharp resolution!
    is your hand that steady? Do you hold your breath, or maybe use a tripod? Or perhaps it’s a lightning-fast shutter speed. However, you do it, keep on doing it.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Marion – LOL. And many thanks. I’m not super steady and I do use a tripod and delayed shutter sometimes. But when there’s lots of direct light, the shutter does go very fast.

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