Re: Instant iris poem, just add H2O
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Instant iris poem, just add H2O
- From: s*@aristotle.net (J. Michael, Celia or Ben Storey)
- Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 09:32:15 -0700 (MST)
You are completely welcome to this doggerel, which I just now wrote using a
No. 2 pencil:
Standards fall when morning sunlight
finds this one iris in this one bed.
Nothing special to an expert's eye,
Nothing useful to be said about grand parentage
or heterosis or chromosomal threads
that weave fine strands past generations
back to great-named gardeners now dead.
Its substance, to be frank, lacks real distinction,
feels faintly ordinary in my hand.
There's nothing new about these style crests
nothing to note in these plain fans
with their edges blunt as dinner knives.
The bloomstalk isn't fat enough.
The spathes aren't quite Dyke's taste.
Even the name's gone off the marker;
lingering here should be a waste
of what little time I have this morning
to get my business done.
But I am held by this plain iris
and I will not walk away
Until its selfless anonymity names
the unjudged beauty that is one day.
Celia Storey
storey@aristotle.net USDA Zone 7b
where we've got more bad poets per capita than teeth
