Reaching for the Sun

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Thu, 04 Sep 2014
  • 2753 reads
10 comments
 
Between the tower blocks, and rows
of back-to-backs, two ups – two downs...
in draughty alleyways – skirt each ‘postage-stamp’
back-yard,  bravely it brazenly blooms, twixt 
bulging black sacks, and whiffy wheelie bins...
 
clapped-out washing machines,
and ancient spin-dryers – went out with the arc.
Where bare-midriffed, jean-clad girls,
seduce their mobile phones...
and kids smoke spliff;
 
in the most despicable locations,
trenchant buddleia thrust their plucky plumes
of purple to the sky...rubbing shoulders 
with graffiti-riddled tunnels, and railway sidings, 
long abandoned to beer cans, and spewed 
Big Macs and French fries. 
 
Despised, and presently considered 
nothing more than a weed...uprooted, trodden
underfoot by some; a sudden clap of thunder
only startles the bullish buddleia
to a deeper shade of blue, seducing 
both butterflies and bees.
 
As leaden grow the skies, it bows its head
as if in prayer, to a sudden squall – bides it time
waits for an Indian summer for another chance
to blossom again,
 
and for folk to realise a weed is, after all, 
but a flower grows in a place of its choosing, 
not of theirs, and the places it picks – only ugly because 
they’ve  made them that way.
Certificate 12
Poem
Silver Spun Sand Poems
Philosophy
Nature
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by maisie on

never considered it a weed.  I guess it does depend on it's location.

 

maisie angel Guess what?  I'm still alive!

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Exactly, maisie.  Location, location, location!  don't they say?

Tinawink

 

Submitted by Bee on

I love them. I have the deep purple as well as the more common lilac, thanks to my dear friend and neighbour, Lil, who I sadly lost a few years since. I have taken many cuttings from the white, but they have always reverted. I love to watch the bees and butterflies and I don't care if they are to be considered weeds. In flower, I think they are lovely. And so is your poem.

Bee

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

You are obviously a lady of great taste, Bee.  Lovely, they are, and it seems the butterflies agree with you.  One day this summer I counted at least twenty butterflies on my buddleia, and I guess it isn't nicknamed 'The Butterfly Bush' for nothingsmiley

So sorry about your friend, by the way, and it must be of some comfort to you that, in a way, the spirit of her is still with you, through her flowers.

Tina

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Finding beauty in unlikely places.

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Absolutely, Philip.  Absolutelysmiley  

 

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I like it very much too, Tina, and its butterfly attendants. Good to have the flowers when others have ceased. But I especially thought your juxtaposition with the vivid raw images of the neglected, defiled places which it so often brightens was very perceptive. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thank you, Rhiannon, so very much, for your, as usual, astute powers of observationsmiley

Tina

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

This was such an optimistic poem Tina.  

I love the budlia too and you are so right in your words of their confidence that they can grow anywhere,  whatever the conditions.

Makes you realise how wonderful nature is.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, Jenny.  Optimistic sums it up nicely.  Hope you have a good weekend, too.  Shopping with my daughter tomorrow, and then the village gala, so I'm hoping for some nice weathersmiley

Tina