The Sunflowers in the Year of Covid

Eric Ashford · Post by **Eric Ashford** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:34 am

The sunflowers are heavy this year.
Gold has had iron added to it.
The fat round capitula
are seeded with a leaden density,
and bend to an inward gravity.
The great yellow florets are glorious
as ever,
but the heliotropes
seem now to turn listlessly
and the sun is masked
as if veiled by a malady,
or rumor of one.

Post by **Tracy Mitchell** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:23 am

Sunflowers and heliotropes evidence COVID's weight-of-the-world layering-- I like:

. . . seeded with a leaden density / and bend to an inward gravity.

Very light touch, for a touching observation. The poem wraps with understated melancholy.

Good to read your poeming again, Eric.

T

Eric Ashford · Post by **Eric Ashford** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 10:02 am

Thank you Tracy. Sunflowers remind me of gayly painted triffids, an alien species of flower maybe, this led me to that alien bug
that has bugged us all so much of late.

Post by **Colm Roe** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 7:06 pm

Nicely done, Eric.
I can see where you're coming from; while beautiful, they really do seem to be a plant that shouldn't thrive here.
Like Tracy, I was struck by those two lines.
Enjoyed the read.

Eric Ashford · Post by **Eric Ashford** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:01 pm

Much obliged for your kind comments on this Calm Rose. Glad the metaphor thing worked for you.

Matty11 · Post by **Matty11** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:47 pm

Nice one Eric. The rumour is as destructive as the malady. Learnt some new words, but the diction added to the interest. Personally, another title would attract a read...I tend to bypass COVID titles (same with cancer/Alzheimer's). I don't mind an ambush if the poem is good.

Phil

Eric Ashford · Post by **Eric Ashford** » Tue Mar 29, 2022 5:22 am

Hi Phil thanks for the close read. Glad it worked for you and yes I do agree, the whole Covid thing has been red meat for too long now for we poets. Promise not to write another Covid poem at least for a while!
Cheers mate

Post by **indar** » Tue Mar 29, 2022 9:50 am

Face masks and flowers: signs of an era that should not be soon forgotten. I see home decor in blue and gold: framed sunflower prints, as well as sunflowers on women's tee shirts advertised online.

This poem connects the image to the world-wide reiteration of war and pestilence assigned to our time with deeper meaning. I don't believe any poet should stop writing about it. We have many years of processing this double tragedy ahead of us--long after the blue and gold sunflower wreaths have been taken from our doors.

Eric Ashford · Post by **Eric Ashford** » Wed Mar 30, 2022 7:57 am

Well said Indar. My wife loves Gladioli blooming great big things. Sunflower fields are so spectacular here in Ohio.
Yes, nothing is off the table for writers.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Mar 30, 2022 1:40 pm

I wrote a long ish critique yesterday which seems to have disappeared so I will summarise:
love the specific langauge that describe the flowers - a lesson for budding poets:
love the sounds and the alliterative qualities:
while several modifiers are superb - leaden, inward listlessly - this is a modifier heavy poem, excuse the pun, which adds to the weight and listlessness but makes for a somewhat static picture:
the whole poem is in the passive voice, which tends again to the qualities resulting from the modifiers:
there is room for cuts perhaps: this year L1/had L2/the L3/are & a L4/and L5/as ever L7/seem now to L9 - at least now should go since when else should they turn /either masked or veiled as they are doing the same job twice, my tendency would be to keep masked in keeping with covid but veiled as a better word.

Just my thoughts, I am sure yoou can make a good case for every one of those words.

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