Flowers

(A Valentine’s Day poem to inspire Saugus residents who go shopping for flowers to express their love or friendship)

Flowers say so much without ever a word.

How can this be? Well haven’t you heard?

It’s in the Bouquet that’s where the floral secrets lay

Out in the open for visual display.

What form does it take? Look for the line it’s very opaque

A horizontal line implies rest, plenty of time don’t toil

Vertical and straight? Punctual, formal and royal.

Is the line more angled than straight?

This implies energy like a horse coming out of a gate!

Always have a focal point where the eye will zoom

Give a showy piece plenty of room

Make the composition like a peacock plume

Give a smaller version for a friend in a hospital room.

Love in your heart but you can’t say?

A bunch of red roses will pave the way

They may even already portray what you can’t display.

The container speaks volumes too

For there is another component to the clue

Smooth and shiny formality of brass

Gentle elegance of glass, baskets and pottery informal ease.

A garden flower filled basket for a nice country breeze

Such a sensory gift to cherish, please and appease.

  Editor’s Note: Saugus resident Joanie Allbee, a local artist and frequent contributor to The Saugus Advocate, offers this poem as a Valentine’s present for Saugus. She hopes it might be beneficial to people picking flowers out for Valentine’s Day and flower painting – perhaps inspiring others to buy flowers with a little understanding of the languages of flowers known by florists. Allbee acknowledges that being born on Valentine’s Day has inspired her artistic talents and interests. “My birthday, Feb14th, that’s why I think I love roses, hearts, and the color ‘red’ so much I believe it’s been embedded and enmeshed throughout my DNA!” she says.

  “The poem I wrote for my book, ‘Tapestry,’ …many moons ago, came out of the knowledge I learned from taking a Floral Design Program (After work hobby). With all the fascinating floral design knowledge learned, I wanted to find a way to share the knowledge with others so I wrote it in the form of a poem; short, concise and factual.”