Flanders Poppies

Flanders poppies (corn poppies – Papaver rhoeas) are blooming in my yard. For more than 10 years I have watched them moving through my neighborhood in Albuqueque. I first noticed them in my church parking lot and a vacant lot about 5 city blocks east of my home. They moved to the west, against the prevailing winds and now I have seen them miles to the west of where I first noticed them. They are pretty, they have historic significance (see the poem below), but they can be somewhat weedy. They are winter annuals, sprouting in the winter, blooming in the spring, shedding their seeds, and then dying by the heat of summer (here in Albuquerque).

These are the flowers written about during WWI by Canadian John McCrae –

In Flanders Fields
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae
Canadian physician in WWI

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

A poem: SOON SPRING WILL COME AND LIFE RENEW

I’m a little late with this.  The renewing has begun!

 

SOON SPRING WILL COME AND LIFE RENEW

The world is still and quiet out

The trees their leaves are now without

Just sticks of gray and brown to see

And Winter now depresses me.

 

The flowers long ago did die

The leaves turned brown with somber sigh.

The silence of the falling snow

Has hushed the sound of plants that grow.

 

Alone and sad I now recall

The life I saw ‘fore leaves did fall.

In crushing pain I now await

The return of Spring’s appointed date.

 

A cluster of white oriental pear blossoms with pink stamens against a blue sky and out of focus pine tree behind the blossoms
Oriental pear blossoms

And then, oh joy, will life arise

The gift of God will feast my eyes

As gold, then green adorns the tree

And flowers in the meadows be.

 

Pink quince blossoms and pubescent new quince leaves
Quince blossoms

And though I know of winter’s need,

To rest the life and cool the seed,

I still rejoice when spring does show

And melt away the winter snow.

 

Fresh food I’ll have to please my taste

Such pleasure after winter’s wait.

A time of joy when life anew.

And Easter calls to mind the Truth.

 

Curtis