I sense your presence long before I view your blossom fair,
Your essence drifts for miles and more and wakes me to aware.
My distant memory calls to mind the times when as a child
The fruits of all your labors hung like ornaments of wild.
I grew to learn that paradise is found where you prevail
A welcome sign that hangs for life when other systems fail.
Your Springtime scent attracts the bees that buzz and whirl about
Then pause to sip your nectar sweet and take it home, no doubt.
It’s honey time the whole year round that compliments my tea
And fresh made cornbread, toasted brown, with marmalade for me.
I guess perhaps that more is less when seeking what’s perfumed,
Your fragrance like the love of life is fragile when entombed.
I sense your presence long before I see you with my eyes,
Your essence drifts forevermore like dreams and changing tides ...
© 2009 Joy A. Burki-Watson
Author notes
Orange groves are quickly being replaced by bedroom communities here in Florida but I still hold hope for those last ones that scent the Florida air.
A contest entry
- #194 Clarion Call to Fine Poets by Lyndon.
2400 points, ended December 3, 15 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please take time to share your comments ...
Comments
1 - 7 of 7
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Sweet
"I sense your presence long before I see you with my eyes,
Your essence drifts forevermore like dreams and changing tides ..."
I've been to those orange groves. Alas...
Howard
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Really, really nice!
I love 'ornaments of wild'! Of course, sonnets are going to be constricted in form, but this seems a very free sonnet! You have the form, but it still soars!
I would change 1 word! "Like welcome sign" The 'Like' there made me have to swerve to miss a possum in the road you had me on. Why not just 'a welcome sign'?
Other than that, not only do you get an A, but this one goes up on the refrigerator door!
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The beauty you create with your pen surely, rivals that of the subject you write about. Attention to detail, vibrant imagery and seemingly endless energy contained in these verses are definately a joy to experience.
Sincerely,
Leo Long
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A beautiful sonnet so appealing with its mention of marmalade on this morning as I read. I regret that I haven't had the pleasure of smelling the orange tree in bloom, sadly they don't grow here. Your poem is a treat to the senses, and this contest just gets tougher as these entries are all so worthy.
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I've never had the pleasure of experiencing the scent of orange blossoms first hand but get a wonderful sense of their beauty and fragrance through your sonnet.
Borrowing a bit from Joni Mitchell, too many paradises have been paved for parking lots. The cost of development is much higher than simply the monetary price tag.
Best to you in the contest Joy. This is a lovely write.
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what an enticing sonnet and ode to the orange flower. You can almost taste it in this jubilant celebration of your much loved home state flower. Such a shame that the old groves are disappearing.
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"...The fruits of all your labors hung like ornaments of wild."
creates a visiual to hold in my mind---and to long remember.
If only there was more concern for the "fruits of the earth"
as parking lots, big box stores and growing suburbs sueezing
the rural.
A tender, beautiful ode, joy!
M-C
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