Who Has Seen the Wind?

One of my Willows. She loves to feel the wind in her hair.

WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND?
By Christine Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.

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Poems don't have to be long to be mind-blowing.  I memorized this poem in Jr. High and have said it in my head & heart thousands of times on windy days.  Like today.  It's not a breezy day, it's a blustery day, as Pooh would say.  The wind that you can hear singing & gossiping in the trees.  I love it.
 
Ray and I used to go camping all the time when the kids were still home. Once we went to this primitive area, just he and I. We decided to give each other Native American names the last day. I became "She Who Hears the Wind." Ray became "He Who Drops Weenie in Fire".  We still laugh about that.
 
We've had a few rare low-humidity days here in the Deep South with lows in the 60's at night and it's like waking in a fairy tale land after the oppressive heat & humidity we've had all summer.  (And O, O, O that August full mOOn the past few nights, how she has hypnotized me!)  My Moonflowers were out to worship her, perfuming the balmy night air.  I wish I could package their fragrance.  It's like no other scent on earth.  It's why I plant them year after year.  They're beautiful, but the scent is otherworldly.  
 
On that note, I'm going back outside before the wind dies down. 
 
Love & Blessings,
 
~Marion 
 
 

Silky, pristeen August Moonflower.

 

One of my Alliums

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." ~John Ruskin

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"There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind." ~Annie Dillard

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"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." ~George Santayana

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Leaves Compared With Flowers by Robert Frost & Moonflowers!

July arrived in Louisiana wearing Moonflowers in her hair!  The heart-shaped leaves are so large this year that they brought to my mind this Robert Frost poem that I love and have memorized.

LEAVES COMPARED WITH FLOWERS

By Robert Frost

A tree's leaves may be ever so good,

So may its bark, so may its wood;

But unless you put the right thing to its root
It never will show much flower or fruit.

But I may be one who does not care
Ever to have tree bloom or bear.
Leaves for smooth and bark for rough,
Leaves and bark may be tree enough.

Some giant trees have bloom so small
They might as well have none at all.
Late in life I have come on fern.
Now lichens are due to have their turn.

I bade men tell me which in brief,
Which is fairer, flower or leaf.
They did not have the wit to say,
Leaves by night and flowers by day.

Leaves and bark, leaves and bark,
To lean against and hear in the dark.
Petals I may have once pursued.
Leaves are all my darker mood.

Backside of opening Moonflower, wet with early evening rain.

She looks to be made of delicate silk unfolding, with a starfish inside.

Tiny, sweet-smelling stamens that drive the Sphinx Moth crazy.  We await their return eagerly.

A frilly Moonflower, freshly open, dripping with raindrops.

I have to say flowers win over leaves, to me.  But then I think of my 3 Weeping Willows and have to recant when I see them dancing with a wild wind or flowing on a gentle breeze.

Blessings!

~Marion

Do you prefer leaves or flowers?

"'Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!"
~William Wordsworth, "Lines Written in Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads, 1798

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"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom." ~Terri Guillemets

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"Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity." ~John Ruskin

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