Happy Poetry Friday!
Thought I’d share some garden beauty this week…
HUMANITY’S HYDRANGEA
Let me lose myself in
pom-pom pink profusions of
nature’s woven four-floret tapestry,
it’s contagious lopsided perfection
of lavender, purple, and pink values
leave me breathless—
Yet, they all live together
congenially, flop-dusting, and oh
how you move my passion and
fly-my-thoughts away momentarily.
Dear hydrangea…
might you share an elixir
that’ll soften our ever present
trodden-on humanity…
© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft
I’ve started reading Ada Limón’s new book of poetry THE HURTING KIND. I’ve been enjoying the enjambment in many of her poems and was thinking about that as I wrote my poem shared above. Here’s the beginning of one of her poems from this book.
DROWNING CREEK
by Ada Limón
Past the strip malls and the power plants,
out of the holler, past Gun Bottom Road
and Brassfield and before Red Lick Creek,
there’s a stream called Drowning Creek where
I saw the prettiest bird I’d seen all year,
the Belted Kingfisher, crested in its Aegean
blue plumage perched not on a high nag
but on a transmission wire, eyeing the creek
for crayfish, tadpoles, and minnows. We were
driving fast back home and already our minds
were pulled taut like a high black wire latched
to a utility pole. I wanted to stop, stop the car
to take a closer look at the solitary stocky water
bird with its blue crown and its blue chest
Read the rest of the poem here.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes is celebrating “5 Ways to Celebrate Plastic Free July, stop by for more info!
Elisabeth Norton at her blog UNEXPECTED INTERSECTIONS is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Elisabeth!
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Hi, Michelle – gorgeous hydrangeas – so many of the colors found in your art! – and YES to these different variations all getting along. Sigh. Thank you for introducing me to this poem, which I hadn’t read before. Perfect for summer, and for wistful travelers.
(PS – I guess I hadn’t read before because it’s from Ada Limón’s new book! Thanks for the spotlight on our new Poet Laureate.) :0)
Your poem is a wonderful celebration of hydrangeas – one of my favorite flowers. I’m lucky enough to walk past some in a neighbor’s garden all the time, and I love their colors and how such giant clusters of blooms come from such compact buds. I love how you described them as “flop-dusting,” – absolutely perfect! Thanks for sharing this with us today.
Yes to “pom pom pink profusions!” What a celebration your poem is. I love it…and the hydrangeas. Thank goodness for the healing effect of flowers…even in photos on the internet. And, Ada Limon! Hooray for her for us for poetry! I’m a fan our our new Poet Laureate and look forward to what her mission will be.
Thank you for sharing your Hydrangea poem. The colors and feeling of the poem led to a great emotional build to the end. I appreciate it both in message and how you delivered the message.
LOVE your poem, and I can detect the influences of Ada. I’m just about to begin her newest book. Can’t wait to see how she’ll change me!
Wonderful!
Michelle, your alliterative link with hydrangea and humanity is gloriously laid out in your poem. The very sight of hydrangea transports me back to my childhood, where hydrangea were plentiful in various parts of our family garden. Thank you for this beautiful offering.
Michelle, you had me with the title of your poem and the photos of the hydrangeas, one of my favorite summer flowers. If any, this flower would be the one to offer an elixir. The last two lines are wonderful, as is Limon’s poem. Thanks for letting me know that Ada has a new book.
Thank you for sharing the glorious ‘hydrangea humanity’ of your garden, Michelle. I am desperately trying to keep the daisies on my balcony alive amidst our heat wave. Your “contagious lopsided perfection” is exactly what I needed today. 🙂