A Poem about a Flower (NaPoWriMo 2016)

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a poem about a flower. It didn’t quite go as I hoped. So I wrote about that, instead.

A Poem about a Flower

I tried to write a poem about a flower.
I sought to capture its beauty
In sparse phrasing—
Single words, applied sparingly,
Like an inked Chinese landscape,
Or the lone perfect notes
Of late-career Miles Davis.

I sought to create the impression
Of a beautiful flower,
To weave the sense
Of its essence
In the reader’s mind
Using as few words as possible.

I listed terms as they came to me.
I deleted, edited, rearranged them
On the page, time and again,
Ruthlessly spiraling through language,
Seeking those single perfect words.

Quick flashes of color:
Red, yellow, orange, white, purple.
Passing whiffs of aroma:
A perfume unequalled.

The swoop of a sepal,
The expanse of a petal,
The stark structuralism of a stem.

The simple beauty of a flower
Proved beyond my ability to capture.

I tried to write a poem about a flower.