The rarest blooms
by cricketjeff on November 14, 2009. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
Beneath the desert sun there grows a rose
A golden bloom above the barren ground
So delicate a beauty seldom shows
Where winds are harsh and water’s seldom found
Am I the only traveller who knows
That wonders such as this are all around
Untroubled by the heat I roamed around
Where weathered hills and valleys stood in rows
An unexpected scent assailed my nose
I looked and saw her petals on the ground
Should I have plucked the specimen I found
Amidst the desert’s other, harsher, shows
I’ve often heard of larger flower shows
And other mysteries may lie around
But nothing in the places I have found
Compared with where this lonely flower rose
From out that harshly arid stony ground
And how it grew there surely no-one knows
The gardeners I ask all give me noes
Their disbelief in what I tell them shows
Such beauty needs its roots in fertile ground
In deserts there aren’t nutrients around
So lovely plants as tender as that rose
Can’t tolerate the sand-scape that I found
Perhaps it was a dream, I hadn’t found
The perfume I imagined in my nose
I didn’t stand before the lifeless rows
And didn’t see what nature rarely shows
Despite these fears I’ll spread my tale around
Perhaps some other folk have seen that ground
Now I have both my feet back on the ground
And all of you can look at what I found
The greatest treat that nature’s spread around
Perhaps you’ll find that dangled by your nose
Is what you’ve always thought the best of shows
And just like me you’ll own a desert rose
Sestinas may be ground against your nose
And seldom found where easy reading shows
But some around are pretty as a rose
Author notes
I thought I’d see if I can still remember how these things work.
I think I’ve met all the rules, the “hero” words in the correct order and in
the traditional order in the envoi, starting the coda with the words sestina is
probably a little unsubtle for purists.
I really wanted to do the whole poem in homophones but I couldn’t find six good
six way homophones so I just played with them a little.
English