Name Of Love

Entry by: vinita18

12th February 2016

Always You

It was you all the way, my love,
right from the days we dangled
on adventitious air roots of the banyan tree
till all things herbaceous died down to the ground
in the last autumn of life, it was you. Only you.

You taught me the subtleties of life
through Ferns, Succulents, Woody Evergreens, Annuals...
Some living on...leafless forever,
some dying back until a new season arrived. Each one true to its Genus.

You taught me how to inhale the scent of peonies from a photograph
by whipping up images of mulch, roots, sunlight and breeze
taught me the humility of wrangled branches
that hosted glossy hairless leaves.

Songs of abandonment I heard in apple blossoms,
the silent melody of earth through soil up to its neck in flowers,
complete stillness through gales surrendering to valleys
to then disappear forever.

Love was as simple as a rustic four-petal rose growing wild.
It smelled like mountain mist lobbed in pine cone tassels.
As warm as native violets and golden poppies,
sitting in a vase on a table for two.

Your eyes were a cinnamon ocean - fragrant like hearth
where all my rivers met, where I merged at dusk
to lay calm at night. The same night
that made wet rot out of people, turned them to fuzzy spores.

Sometimes when cold and chill claimed my heart
and the world became leathery and elliptical,
you held my hand, showed me nymphs hiding inside daffodils
so that I laughed...and then you laughed with me in the name of love.
*********

Marker 1

What I liked about this piece: Some of the imagery is delightful - the rustic four-petal rose, pine cone tassels, cinnamon ocean, etc. The poem is dense with sensations and works really well - it's beautiful.
Favourite sentence: You taught me how to inhale the scent of peonies from a photograph
Feedback: Although, like I said, I really liked the poem overall, there were a couple of images that confused me. "Fragrant like hearth" - hearths are usually not fragrant and rivers don't usually meet at a hearth - and "merged at dusk." Are those typos and it mean earth and emerged maybe? Though earth isn't that fragrant either.

Marker 2

What I liked about this piece: I loved the imagery
Favourite sentence: Love was as simple as a rustic four-petal rose growing wild.
Feedback: Wasn't sure about adventitious and, for me, there was no overall message but the sense of the place was very strong.

Marker 3

What I liked about this piece: All the images it conjured up; the colours and shapes. barely a line goes by without a plant or flower, which is lovely.
Favourite sentence: Your eyes were a cinnamon ocean
Feedback: I feel this is about ageing as much as love, and can imagine a couple growing old together, sitting in the garden they've planted. I remember plants for people, too, and it's a lovely way to think of them. The poem is full of warm gentle images and detail, I especially like the last verse.