Day 11 & Pic and a Word #227: Flowers from my quarantine

• Manja Maksimovič

Today’s post includes a topical villanelle poem and imagery from the last five days. It is beautiful but it’s also all there is. And it’s yellow instead of green.

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Prompt 11: “I challenge you to write a poem in which one or more flowers take on specific meanings.”

Even though the prompt included a fascinating two-way flower dictionary, in my poem, which is a villanelle, I concentrated on symbolism and meaning of flowers as such.

Quarantine flowers

Now is still a good time.
Spring is in its mild phase
and flowers are a good sign.

As long as they bloom, it’s fine,
before drought claims green space.
Now is still a good time.

Bees are still buzzing around
but blooms are harder to trace,
and flowers are a good sign.

Do you want to find the right rhyme,
and rank flowers fallen from grace?
Now is still a good time.

Jealousy, beauty sublime?
Symbols are not in a race,
and flowers are a good sign.

Compared to what waits in line,
quarantine is a good place,
now is still a good time
and flowers are a good sign.

Here are flowers and some other views from the last five days of my quarantine here in southern Tuscany, since Patrick asked for quarantine as the theme of his Pic and a Word challenge. Pretty good and pretty for a quarantine. Already in fear of the life thereafter.

  • Yellow prevails.
  • The closest I can come to the sea. First Lake Burano, behind it the sea.
  • More yellows.
  • Rosemary in bloom. A nice abbreviation: Condom.
  • Blossoms upon blossoms.
  • These appear every April. See how the cactus leaf has grown out of the net?
  • Tiny snail.
  • Ladybird. Plenty of these around.
  • See? Too yellow. It should be the best kind of green right now.
  • Not a cloud in the sky for weeks.
  • The Unit signing off.

For Day 11 of NaPoWriMo 2020

and

In response to Patrick Jennings’ Pic and a Word Challenge #227: Quarantine

24 thoughts on “Day 11 & Pic and a Word #227: Flowers from my quarantine”

  2. Hi MMM,

    Now is always a good time. Surprise. I’m of the philosophy that now is a sort of an invisible fiction. Vibrating between the past and the future. It would seem that there is more past in the now than future and I guess that is why the past is more important to me. Anyway, it is a good poem and touches upon themes that should drive humans. If only that were true and I can hope. “Surprise sometime will come around.” Thanks. Duke

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    1. You’re most welcome, Duke. I agree that there is more past in the now than future, but I think now if invisible non-fiction. Surprises are of diverse nature, let’s hope for only the dolphins in Venice kind. Oh, please, have a look at the previous post from this one, you will see a certain book lying in wait.

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  3. Hehehe the Condom. abbreviation is always a hit!

    The other day I was sharing my screen on Slack with colleagues and I was using my private laptop (because, well, I like it better). As I was sharing an email pop-up appeares, from the building manager in Milan where my brother and I have a flat. ‘Nuovo reg. Condom. Covid-19’ or something like that… My English colleagues were most amused 😀

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    1. Thank you, Lexi. All sorts of wildflowers here. But how do you mean that you hope for warm weather to get here? This is one fear I don’t have, the fear of cold. 😀 It will be very hot before we know it. Today we had some rain which was really good. Otherwise it’s been very dry. Is it cold where you are?

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      1. I thought you were having trouble getting something to use for heating fuel, so I was hoping springtime and warmer temperatures were arriving for you! I also forget that some people like cooler weather – haha! No, not cold here; I now live in a warm and almost tropical city, and I love it!

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      2. I see now. Yes, I was alarmed when it became forbidden to go to the next town where we go to the supermarket, because our small local one was known to run out of wood pellets, but all good so far. We still light the furnace but only in the night.

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