Flower Basket (2020)                                                    multi-media collage by Maria L. Berg

A to Z Challenge

jam – improvisation

jubiloso – play in a jubilant or exulted manner

jentele – play in a pleasing, graceful or elegant manner

NaPoWriMo

Prompt: write a poem in which one or more flowers take on specific meanings

Floriography is the language of flowers, a coded language used in Victorian times to communicate feelings. Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway is a glossary of the flowers and their meanings.

You might also enjoy Name that Plant where you can drop in a picture of a flower or plant to discover its identity.

I had a lot of fun with this prompt. I looked through pictures of flowers I have taken in my yard, then went out and took some more. I put those photographs in Name that Plant and learned about the plants that grow here, then I looked them up in the Language of Flowers to learn the secret code of my surroundings. I was happily surprised by the results. I printed the pictures I took and made a collage.

The flowers:

Azalea – temperance
Magnolia – love of nature
Hellebore – scandal, calumny
Heath – solitude
Dandelion – rustic oracle
Rhododendron – Danger, Beware
Camellia Japonica, Red – Unpretending excellence
Camellia Japonica, White – Perfected loveliness

PAD Challenge

Prompt: write a control poem

The poem

The Code of Controlled Emotions

In a time when a crush or a blush
Was met with a frown or a scowl
Flowers told of emotions controlled
A secret code now renowned

Today, I set out to discover the utter-
ances that my plants chant
but I rudely ignored as they implored
on the wind with their innovative jams

Camellia frills and trills at my door
Ignores the dead shed in the flowerbed
You swirl in perfected loveliness
But once unfurled beware the Hellebore

“Rhododendrons many here be, you see”
predicts the ever-present dandelion, a scion
of those pulled but a moment ago
“Best be lulled in the heath and ignore the siren”

Jentele Azalea, you calm the psalm
your secret may clear the fear while
Wild Magnolias sneak through the bushes
and surprise like beautifully died eggs