Today's Flowers and I Heart Macro 5/24/14

For Saturday's photo prompts Today's Flowers and I Heart Macro:

Scroll down for a Memorial Day poem for Open Link Monday's writing prompt for 5/26/14.

 

Found this single plant at a garden center yesterday.
It wasn't labeled, so I didn't know what it was.
However, I was looking at another blog this morning and saw a much
smaller pink flower just like this.  It was identified as an
Aquilegia-columbine.  These blooms were each about 4-5 inches across. 

For Open Link Monday there is no specific theme for a poem, but on 5/26/14 it was suggested that one might choose to write about Memorial Day. I find Memorial Day and Veterans' Day the saddest of holidays, because war always seems futile to me.  Even if a war's purpose is honorable, too many lives are lost when humans resort to violence to settle their differences. Even if a battle is won, were the lost lives worth the outcome? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I decided to use my photo of a columbine as a symbol, because the 5 violet petals suggest a star. Columbines reseed and therefore come back each spring to replace what was lost in the previous fall. I used it as a metaphor for the renewing of life, even of life lost in war.

SEEING STARS 

(Ode to a Columbine)

 The violet petals

In the shape of a star,

A memorial to those

Who fought vainly afar.

A white cup holds stamens

To erase battle's scar,

Renewing life's flora

Lost in unvarnished war.

FLOWER CHILD - Friday Flash 55

This post is in response to

FRIDAY FLASH 55

The idea is to write a story in exactly 55 words.

Click on the yellow link above to join the fun or read others’ stories.

Petunia hated her stupid name. Her mother, who loved gardening, named her and her sisters after flowers: Iris, Daisy, Violet, Rose, and Petunia.

Kids at school had taunted them by calling them the Flower Girls.

If she had a brother, he would have been tormented ruthlessly. Surely her crazy mother would have named him Pansy.

(©2009, C.J. Peiffer)

FIVE TULIPS - Shadow Shot Sunday

"FIVE TULIPS"

(click on image for larger version)

This image is in response to

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY

Click on the link to post your own image

or see what others have posted.

        Late on the afternoon on 4/23/09, these brilliant red tulips blooming in my yard were just begging for a photo to be taken for Shadow Shot Sunday. Our tulips and daffodils were particularly lovely this year.

(photo & text, ©2009 C.J. Peiffer)

JOIN BY SUBMITTING YOUR OWN SHADOW SHOT

WHITE DAFFODILS

This is a post in response to "A Thousand Word Thursday"

at Cheaper Than Therapy blog. 

and

CREATIVE EVERY DAY

Click on the link(s) to add your own response to the

challenge(s) or to view those submitted by others

"WHITE DAFFODILS"

        A few days ago, I noticed that the daffodils in my yard are starting to peak through the ground. So I thought I'd post one of my own pieces of art with an image of white daffodils. Let's hope this image chases the winter away.

This image and other daffodil images I designed can be found HERE 

on T-shirts, cards,  postage stamps, key chains, magnets, and mugs.

(Image ©2006 C.J. Peiffer)