Ranunculus, Beauty, and Owl, WIP, watercolor and watercolor pencil, © 2017 Michelle Kogan
RANUNCULUS
Ranunculus
keep on
speaking
even after
they are picked.
They’re talking–
I know they are.
In this vase
they flash their
comment;
some bold and erudite,
some quiet and polite,
a cackle of
personalities,
for their
brief life
they’ve packed it
all in–
Eyes focused
action in gear
no time to waste.
Fearless,
Feathered,
Beauties,
Ranunculus
© 2017 Michelle Kogan
For Poetry Friday this month I’m featuring different Women poets, in honor of Women’s History Month. Today I’m focusing on Mary Oliver. My poem Ranunculus was inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem The Hummingbirds. You can find the entire poem in her book, Blue Horses.
THE HUMMINGBIRDS
In this book
there are many hummingbirds
the blue-throated, the bumblebee, the calliope,
the cinnamon, the lucifer, and of course
the ruby-throated.
Imagine!
Well, that’s all you can do.
For they’re swift as the wind
and they fly, not across the pages but,
like many shy and otherworldly things,
between them.
I know you’ll keep looking now that I’ve told you.
I’m hungry to see them too, but I can’t
hold them back even for a moment, they’re
busy, as all things are, with their own lives.
Detail from The Best of Today’s Little Ditty, 2014-2015, Art © Michelle Kogan
Head over to Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’ blog, Today’s Little Ditty for the Poetry Roundup and other intriguing treats-She’s featuring Helen Frost this month, who challenged us to write an Ode poem of an object involving the senses. My poem Ode to Spring Soil was included on Michelle’s blog this week.
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Your poem’s opening really grabs me, Michelle. I’m curious about what these fearless, feathered beauties are saying! And then there’s Mary Oliver, who you can always trust to capture “shy and otherworldly things” in poems that fly between the pages. How lucky am I to have had you capture that little hummingbird for the cover of our book?!
Thanks Michelle, ranunculus are magical and other worldly too. And My feelings are mutual for your Ditty anthology!
I know there is a variety of ranunculus, and you’ve made them come alive with that “cackle of personalities.” Just like women, right? Mary Oliver’s observations help make that parallel between your own thoughts and hers of hummingbirds, “busy with their own lives”. I always love your pictures, too!
Ah Linda, you hit that perception right on the head, yes they are like a cackle of women or dare I say chickens, but we can only conjure up what they may be saying; which makes them even more intriguing.Thanks!