A Gathering of Poetry

It’s the 3rd Thursday of the month and I remembered (late but I did remember) to join the Gathering of Poetry set. I’ve been thinking about snowdrops ever since I saw Sarah post them yesterday, hence my choice of a poem to share.

Snowdrops

So long trying to paint them, failing
to paint their shadows on the concrete path.

They are less a white than a bleaching out of green.
If you go down on your knees

and tilt their petals towards you
you’ll look up under their petticoats

into a hoard of gold
like secret sunlight and their

three tiny striped green awnings that lend a
kind of frantic small-scale festive air.

It is the first day of February
and I nearly picked a bunch for you,

my dying friend, but remembered in time
how you prefer to leave them

to wither back into the earth;
how you tell me it strengthens the stock.

—Paula Meehan, from Painting Rain (2009)

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Comments (6)

  1. I’ve been walking around the house for the past couple of days looking for snowdrops, but nothing yet. So I’m quite happy that you shared this poem! I love to look under their petticoats and also like to leave them to strengthen the stock (just like my grandmother told me).

  2. My snowdrops are poking up but no blooms yet! This poem is so lovely… I likewise “leave them to strengthen the stock” and each new spring that arrives from the leaving of the previous year is just spectacular!

  3. What a great poem, Carole! I love finding snowdrops in the spring. I don’t have any in my gardens, but I always mean to plant some. Maybe next year . . .

  4. Reading this poem makes me appreciate them all the more! So far I’ve only seen that one patch that I took the photo of — I think that house gets the perfect amount of sun, because it’s where I always see them blooming first. Thanks to a couple of unusually warm days, nearly all our snow and ice has melted and I’ve spotted some daffodils coming up, too! Today I’m going to check our driveway to see if there are any hyacinths poking up yet. I know it’s a while yet until spring and we’re supposed to get some more snow tomorrow, but Mother Nature is giving me hope for an early spring!

  5. I don’t know this poet but I’m going to look for her work. What a lovely poem. The first flowers of early spring are always welcome and I love the sentiment of the friend leaving them in honor of her friend.

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