Earlier this week my parents, my kids and I took a walk around the Diamond Valley Lake Reservoir in Southern California. The wildflowers were in full bloom, the sky was a beautiful clear blue, and the newly-created lake sparkled below us. California poppies covered the hillsides along with a dozen other types of wildflowers in blue, yellow, and purple. It was a wet winter in California, so these flowers must have been a gift of repayment.
In honor of their short-lived beauty, my Poetry Friday entry this week is from Maya Angelou's "California Prodigal":
Around and through these
Cold phantasmatalities,
He walks, insisting
To the languid air,
Activity, music,
A generosity of graces.
His lupin fields spurn old
Deceit and agile poppies dance
In golden riot. Each day is
Fulminant, exploding brightly
Under the gaze of his exquisite
Sires, frozen in the famed paint
Of dead masters. Audacious
Sunlight casts defiance
At their feet.
You can read the entire poem here at PoetryFoundation.org.
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Elaine Magliaro is on the roundup at Wild Rose Reader. Elaine always does Poetry Friday right. Don't miss her post this week on "Gearing up for Poetry Month 2008." She has list after list of poetry resources available for us all.
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Photo from the National Park Service.
