There exists a balance of positive and negative in life, and in my operetta, Luminescence, I address this through the spirit voice of Anne Sexton and her associated flower, Rhododendron.
Rhododendron: Dark Thoughts
(from my operetta, Luminescence)
From the corner of the garden,
a fierce wind buffets
branches of the Rhododendron.
Now enters the looming danger
of love’s despair.
Begonia, Narcissus,
and Southernwood
all bode a feeling of lost love
in the midst of this glorious
locus amoenus.
Anne whispers:
Rhododendron is my flower’s name,
I bring dark thoughts
into this world of fragrance.
I make the lives of my seed
and the surrounding seeds
suffer as I do.
Humanity has attached meaning
to our nature, proclaiming
that we ignore
the pleas of the world
within our hearts,
so we suffer the association
with human frailties:
vanity, melancholy, heartbreak.
But here in this garden, I now see:
The beauty in our lives
does indeed surround us,
even in our darkest moments,
even in those isolated
hours of despair.
© Jeanne I. Lakatos
(My reading of this poem is on Pod-omatic at the bottom of this page.)
