Poetry Corner: Smelling the Roses

POETRY CORNER

– 5/18/16

♣ We welcome and encourage your response especially in the form of short poems. You may reply by leaving a comment below.

Roses Painting by By Nan Rae.

Kay Tracy

wild roses cascade
each time I walk by
I am married
the candled sunset
in your eyes

Kay Tracy lives in Portland, Oregon. For her, the sudden sight of roses becomes a special moment of association, realization of the joyfulness in her life now.

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Painting by By Nan Rae.

Teresa Mei Chuc

Rose

Mom told me
not to smell roses

because small bugs would get into my nose.

I leaned closer than my mom would have liked.
It happened quickly, without a thought, a waft
like honey.

I smelled again.

Then I was curious about the purple ones, the
orange ones, and the deep red ones.

Bike Accident

My closest encounter with a rose
bush was when I crashed into one.
The bike on top of me, thorns
in my body. Flesh cut and bleeding.

The rose entered my bloodstream
and eyelids scattered over me.

I guess it was then, as when Peter Parker was
bitten by a spider and became Spiderman
–when I became a poet.

Born in Vietnam, Teresa Mei Chuc, came with her mother and brother to Pasadena at 2 years old, and grew up here in the City of Roses. She is a poet, writer, teacher and publisher.

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> Photos by Nan Rae.

> Kathabela says “I am posting this week’s Poetry Corner, with its multiple views of roses, from Hangzhou, China. Rose bushes are planted in the medians on busy streets in Hangzhou and in preparation for the arrival of thousands for G20, an international economic conference. Two years ago, in Xian, China,  we were especially amazed at miles of rose bushes planted over as yet unexcavated ruins, riches unimaginable yet to be uncovered. Our dreams and poems as well as histories that lie beneath our grasp, do roses symbolize and lure us to them in the end?”

Kathabela and Roses in Xian, China (Photo – Rick Wilson).