It's Sunflower Season!

I never have much luck with sunflowers. This summer, I must have planted 200 seeds in my backyard, and some in my daughter's backyard in Ringwood, and I also gave my sister a handful of seeds. One plant survived the birds, the little creatures, and the elements. Here is a photo of my splendid sole surviving sunflower and a poem about someone I do not know who had much greater success than I, a few years ago.

Photo by Maude
of this year's sole surviving sunflower

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For weeks now

I’ve been driving by a house

on Totowa Road

that holds no distinction

except for a vibrant flower garden

in front and around the side

What catches my glance

and causes me to smile

are perhaps thirty or forty

big golden sunflowers

shouting for attention

Today I printed

eight sunflower poems

folded them neatly

and placed them in an envelope

decorated with a scribbled sketch

of a solitary sunflower

and a note saying

“I love them, too!”

and left the envelope

by the front door

of the house on Totowa Road

Sometimes I leave bereavement poems

on a table at a neighborhood mausoleum

or give copies of The Widow’s Song

to newly widowed friends

Sometimes I mail poems

about butterflies

to people who love them

and regularly post poems on my blog

about God’s love and His mercy

with the hope

of reaching those

who need encouragement

When the one who gifted me

with a garden of sunbursts

opens the door today

I hope my simple poems

generate a smile

Maude Carolan Pych