Tag Archives: 2025

April 17, 2025 Context for Poem “Encounter”

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(Photo: PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay)

This was another day of searching on my own for an appropriate botanical candidate inspired by the letter “Q”, since Rosendahl did not have any entries for this letter of the alphabet.

I love both of these plants. Juglone in our garden (yes, those black walnuts) prohibit us from planting a quaking aspen, much as I would like to do that. Queen Anne’s lace can probably tough it out, but I have never seen seeds for sale or nursery plants, perhaps because here they are prevalent ditch flowers. Perhaps, someday, I will find some of those to admire up close and often.

In terms of poetry, each of these plants reminds me of a splendid often-read poem. I include links here, in case you want to refresh your own memory of them. The first, featuring Queen Anne’s lace, is the splendid “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich. Until I sought out links for this post, I did not realize that this poem is having a moment–search on it and you’ll find many treasures, including a laudatory assessment from A. O. Scott of the New York Times from last month and YouTube videos of Rich reading her masterful work.

In a similar vein, from a much different poet, aspen trees always call to mind for me Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1832 masterpiece of Arthuriana, “The Lady of Shallott,” particularly these two lines:

Willows whiten, aspens quiver, 
Little breezes dusk and shiver...
(Photo: mcmacin; Pixabay)

Never before, or since, have I seen “dusk” used as a verb–just one detail that makes Tennyson’s incantatory poem continue to repay reading and rereading.

Wishing you splendid views today, everywhere you look--LESLIE

April 16, 2025 Context for Poem “Pome Fruit”

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First Kiss Apple with Winona Pear

Rosendahl’s entries for the letter “P” held many attractions for me. I was able to work in two of my favorite into today’s offering: “pyriform” (pronounced “peer-i-form”), an entirely new word to me that means “pear-shaped;” and ‘Pome,” which already held associations for me though the botanical connection was delightfully new.

Previous? The title of a poetry collection that James Joyce published in 1927: Pomes Penyeach–which I have assumed was his thumb in the eye to “correct” British pronunciation and spelling–and a monthly local event at our public library that goes by the acronym P.O.M.E. or Poetry Open Mic Event.

(As for the use in botany of the word, “pome,” I believe that today’s poem, emailed to you if you requested it, explains that.)

Wishing that you, too, make delightful discoveries today in the worlds of letters and growing plants–LESLIE

April 13, 2025 Context for Poem “One of a Kind”

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Photo: Karla Schultz

The botanical term that inspired this poem, “monotype,” does not appear in the poem. Exploring its meaning, however, made me think of how we are able to see the uniqueness of those people (and situations and locations and objects, too) that are important to us. It especially takes time and attention to perceive the deep individuality that marks each person. And then, despite a consistent core, he or she keeps growing and changing!

Today’s poem is dedicated to my sister, Karla. Today is her birthday. Her life is a gift to everyone who knows her. Among her many virtues, as some of you long-time readers know, she is an exceptional photographer of the natural world. (To see past posts that feature her photography, you can search on “Karla Schultz WinonaMedia”.) The photographs in this post are all from her. I want to thank her for allowing me to share her artistic gifts with you.

LESLIE

Photo: Karla Schultz
Photo: Karla Schultz
Photo: Karla Schultz
Photo: Karla Schultz

April 12, 2025 Context for Poem “Missing Pages”

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In preparation for a summer weekend discussing Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, with a friend, I have been reading about her life. Two excellent biographies, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon and Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark, have provided engrossing reads as well as a wealth of personal and cultural background. And yet, and yet…no matter how much can be known by scholarship, there are always overt and inadvertant gaps for a biographer. No matter how much we know, we wonder. It seems to me that speculation — risky as that is in any realm — is part of coming to know, and if there is no margin for that then we either make it up or grow bored.

Still, I suspect–ahem, I speculate–that for most of us knowledge is founded on questioning, and only some questions can be definitively answered. How frustrating! And yet, how wonderful, too, since it is our explorations that give us new points of view and allow new insights in.

Today’s poem has twin inspirations–this recent reading and the realization that not only texts but also plants have in-built essential lacunae.

Here’s to partial answers to some of our questions!

LESLIE

April 11, 2025 Context for Poem “Fairy Boats”

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The word, “keel,” comes from the Old Norse word for “ship.” As it was Rosendahl’s only gloss on a term beginning with the letter K, it served as the inspiration for today’s poem.

In botany, a “keel” refers to the fused, boat-shaped structure formed by the two bottom petals in flowers, especially of the Papilionaceous branch of the Fabaceae family–legumes like peas and beans and lupines. One also sees this in some orchids including dendrobium and black orchids, plants which live in Minnesota houses but not in Minnesota gardens.

The descriptions in “Fairy Boats” and some of the images in this post come from photo safari visits to my friend, Judy. She lives outside of Northfield on many acres that manage to contain several habitats: lawns, hedgerows, gardens, prairie, ponds, and dense woodlands. The stand of lupine described in the poem was not planted by her but inadvertently by passing birds. (Visits to Judy’s land has sparked several other poems over the years and more than 1,000 photographs.)

Lupines also flourish along Minnesota’s North Shore, and thrive abundantly in the ditches near the rocky beaches of Lake Superior. The images below come from that region.

Wishing you an imaginative day, wherever you journey! LESLIE