La Fleur

by shadowstorm

Published August 7, 2007

Beautiful flower,
Glowing with life,
Pulsing with joy;
Struck by an icy wind,
The flower withers and dies.

Killed by winter's frost,
Only battered seed remains.
Life, living solely due to fear,
And in fear,
But alive.

Frozen in limbo,
Sheltered from pain by surrounding hurt,
The light of the world beats down and,
Chilled by the clear skies,
The ground hides the seed.

Still, the warmth around beams,
And slowly,
The cold ground thaws,
The seed becomes aware,
And opens.

Testing her new freedom,
Roots, a stem,
Penetrate the formerly cold shell.
Where once fear took root,
New life.

Breaking past the final barriers,
The seed reaches towards the warmth,
Greeting its old friend
And beginning to
Remember.

Encouraged by happiness
And seeing for the first time
Herself, surrounded by caring friends,
The seed
Roots deeper.

Seeing again the good in the world,
All the things that didn't hurt
And her likeness in another
The flower begins
Blossoming.

The flower, as it blossoms,
Recognizes the feelings,
And,
Remembering their ending,
Hesitates.

But the flower sees the others
And their confidence.
Her likeness transforms with them and,
Seeing him turn toward her,
The flower takes courage and
Blooms.
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Alright, I hope that wasn't too bad. Actually, I hope it was good. It's different than I usually write, but I felt it had to be done--a sort of companion to my depressed poems, providing a balance and solid sense of change. That is all I have to say, except please share your thoughts.

Comments & reviews · 4
User avatar
Fand
Comment
Fand commented Comment · Aug 15, 2007

o0. What's with the abuse of commas? And why are the linebreaks so arbitrary? Stop listing--start expressing. And please, steer clear of cliches like a cold wind withering the flowers!

User avatar
Lynlyn
Review
Lynlyn wrote a review Review · Aug 13, 2007

This is a really cool concept. I especially like the line about "testing her new freedom" because that's when it goes from pure imagery to something narrative: you've given the flower some character, something more for the brain to chew on. It's nice.

However, I'm not exactly feelin' your enjambment here. I think that some of the ways that you've split up your lines, especially the isolated "and" lines, broke it up a little. It comes across as a little long vertically as well, and I think that pulling some of those lines together would help that. Over all, nice job, hope to see more from you soon. :)

User avatar
Shasta
Review
Shasta wrote a review Review · Aug 8, 2007

I appreciated this poem and thought that it was pretty good. The metaphor was relatively simple, but elegantly so. I thought the poem was a little long for such a simple message and it might be improved by shortening it just a little. However, I liked how the metaphor became clearer and more pronounced as you went through the poem, and the length helped accommodate that, though I still think it would help the poem if you shortened it.

Pidgin_Princess wrote a review Review · Aug 7, 2007

Wow, great poem! Keep writing in that style, I think you've found your calling!

"Sheltered from pain by surrounding hurt"

huh? I know kind of what you're going for but... it just doesn't quite make it.


"Penetrate the formerly cold shell"

a little wordy. not bad, but almost too much. you've established the fact the shell was cold. is it really neccessary to use that phrase in that way?


yeah, so that's all nit-picky little stuff. write more and tell me when you post!



Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.
— Brené Brown