(Photo by Karla Schultz)(Photo by Karla Schultz)(Photo by Karla Schultz)(Photo by Karla Schultz)(Photo by Karla Schultz)
Everyday, I am inspired by the art of my sister, Karla. This year, she agreed to select, from her thousands of flower images, some of her own favorites to share with us today, on her birthday. Thank you, Karla!
Wishing you long life and joy every day!
The Freshest Flowers
are those strongly rooted,
alive to sun and dew,
each one distinct
as a crystal of snow.
Look closely. Lean in.
Wonder at varied hues,
at pattern with infinite--
but not-quite--repetition.
Call this Nature
or call this Art:
a flower captures
the human heart.
Leslie Schultz
Daffodils and Scilla in Our Garden This Morning (Photo by Leslie Schultz)
William Butler Yeats, Poet and StatesmanEmbroidered Coat (Photograph by Susan Jaret McKinstry)
A Coat
I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
(First published in Poetry Magazine, 1914)
This small poem by W.B. Yeats is one of my favorites, another one that I have inadvertantly memorized. Once I realized the poem I wanted to write for today, in celebration of my sister, Karla’s birthday, then I realized that I wanted this song of a poem to kick things off! (Many thanks, Susan, for responding so quickly with a photograph of your own beautiful coat!)
Is there more enterprise in walking naked? Partial as I am to embroideries, I have pondered this long and long, and I am still not sure. I am, however, so grateful for this poem, encountered first in an informal study group with Doris Kammradt and Anne Johnson, in Madison, in that in-between time after college and before graduate school. Yeats’s poems teach me over and over the eloquence of the poetic enterprise.
Context for My Poem, “Green Coat”:
I am not skilled in the art of the Selfie–not by a long shot–but I wanted to give a sense of the wonderful gift my dear sister gave to me recently. It wasn’t for any special occasion but it was received during what seemed like an unending winter when I was always cold. Once I donned this magical coat, however, I felt warmed through and through. It cuts the wind. The inside of the pockets feel like velvet. I love the color. And when I wear it, I feel my sister’s love protecting me. So, for me, this green coat is both real and mythological and came, as magical things do, all unasked for.
