Do Plants Go to Heaven?
Where did crinkle-petaled salmon poppies go
that blossomed along painted white brick fence
between gramma & grampa’s place and uncle’s?
Where did stunted white rose of sharon tree go,
under yard-wide shade of oaks, centered with red
blossoms, within child’s reach, adults face high?
Where did giant lilac trees go, perfuming yard;
cut down to stumps by grampa every so often
yet rising again like stories of mythical deities?
Where did patch of lily-of-the valley go, covering
ground under seasonally paired gangly sassafras;
gramma used to steep root beer roots for sweet tea?
Where did floribunda pale snowball bush wander,
from its station outside front door, near patch of
sidewalk perpendicular to one leading nowhere?
Where did the concept of heaven for humans
arise? Rainbow bridges for beloved furbabies?
A place where overdosing creatives continue art?
I hope poppies, rose of sharon, lilacs, lily-of-the
valley, sassafras, snowball bush are waiting,
in heaven as they did on earth, for me there.
Laura is today’s host of dVerse’ Meeting the Bar Thursday. Laura says:
And our MTB prompt today is simply to use this Ubi Sunt motif in your poetry as such:
-
title your poem with the question – where are the/they…
-
use the questioning within your poem, even with repetition
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DO NOT ANSWER it though – the questioning is rhetorical
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employ concepts of mortality, the transience of life, a sense of nostalgia
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suggested themes: Childhood; Youth; Lost Generation; Days of Yore;
-
employ whatever poetry style of your choosing from free verse to sonnet
Tao Talk 
The thought of all those flowers, maybe they just follow the gardener… but sometimes a flower comes back after years of being abandoned.
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<3
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lovely floral memories as you look back to your grandparents and forward too – to Heaven!
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should have still been logged in as Laura Bloomsbury not anonymous😟
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Laura, thanks much. They are all still there … in my mind. Your prompt has informed me they are waiting in the afterlife as well <3
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I love the way your poem took us to your happy place with your grandparents, Lisa, and the way you describe all the lovely plants in their garden. It must have been a botanical wonderland. I especially love the ‘crinkle-petaled salmon poppies’, the ‘giant lilac trees…rising again like stories of mythical deities’, and wandering ‘floribunda pale snowball bush’.
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<3 Thank you, Kim. It is my happy place.
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I loved my grandparents’ garden too, but I mostly remember roses, peonies, lavender, honesty and night-scented stock – and mint!
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Very nicely done!
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Thanks, Zum!
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I hope so too Li :-) really gorgeous poem!
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Thanks :)
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You took me through a tour of my childhood’s vegetation. (Sassafras tea!) Paradise is here, if we only take the time to look at and appreciate it.
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Happy to walk with you through this Paradise.
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Nicely done, Lisa. I guess we will have to wait an see! :>)
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Yes we will, Dwight.
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:>)
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Lovely thought and poem Lisa! I sure hope so and plenty of buttercups and honeysuckle…
That was the first Cake song I ever heard.
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Thank you, Max. I want it to be a Garden of Eden, with a Peaceable Kingdom, where the lion lies down with the lamb.
I sing many Cake songs like mantras and this is one. Cool that this was your first.
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I remember I was riding with an old drummer we had and he put in that cassette in the car. I liked it because it was so different.
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Younger son used to ride to college with a buddy who was a fan of Cake. That was my gateway :) It’s different in the best of ways. I was supposed to go see Cake this past Sunday and had tickets. Social anxiety kept me from going :(
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Oh that is too bad! I wish you could have gone. The Bob and Willie concert was the first one I’ve been to since 2019 I believe…since seeing Jake Bugg.
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p.s. yes on buttercups and honeysuckle. hummingbirds love honeysuckle and probably buttercups too.
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The fragrance would be intoxicating. Those two make me feel 10 again.
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:)
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You’ve done wonders with the prompt, Lisa. As Max said, lovely thought and poem! I have gathered how much you enjoy plants and it makes sense that such devotion could lead to this line of questioning. The song choice is the icing (or, should I say, the flower?).
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Steve, thanks so much. My plant bonds run deep.
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You’re welcome, Lisa. My Sweety has a similar devotion to her gardens. ❤️
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I think plants do go to Heaven, besides for the Israelites in the desert he made Mana for them as well when they get there.
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Thanks for sharing that info, Jim.
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oh Li this is great. I’m preparing my mother’s house for sale and the yard is so terribly overgrown. Been stealing plants and moving them to my yard… will my nieces know, or care? Or their children yet to be?
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Thank you, Eric. Make sure you keep them well-watered. Not a good time for transplanting. Plant people are a special breed. If they aren’t that breed, they won’t know or care. Sorry to hear of your mother’s passing.
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What a unique idea
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Thanks much, Sadje. I honestly think they do as we are all recycled atoms.
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Yes, the heavens will be full of flowers and fruits
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Dear Lisa, my talent [minimal as it is] for growing plants, especially flowers, came from my maternal grandmother. Your poetry brought back all those spring, summer and fall days I followed her from garden to garden, helping in every way possible. She was a gem indeed.
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Helen, so good to know you share those memories with your gramma. I have a whole other set of such memories with my mom also, but that’s for another poem.
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Many of my childhood memories center around flowers, too, Lisa. I think there was more time for such things before TV and the Internet.
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Happy to hear it — and I can believe it, seeing your flowers — and I agree about more time then.
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But what if the weeds make it to Heaven as well, Li – will the heavenly host have to spend their time weeding or will weeds be allowed to thrive and be their best selves – questing of Yorkshire…
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Haha! I think there is a special place in heaven for poison ivy — or is that hell?
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(Cake – of course 😀) I like your question, I like to imagine – yes.
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:) <3
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Heaven is all around us.🌿
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You know, you’re right. They don’t need to go anywhere.
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lovely artwork. :-)
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Thank you, Imelda! I did the coloring on it.
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The colors worked well together. 😊
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Floral fancies, how lovely this poem is.
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<3
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