Day 13: Magnolia

Today I'm revising some notes (eh - 3 lines...) I had scribbled a few days prior on a description of a magnolia tree, one of my favourite springtime blooms. And fascinating to try and describe! 

For example, did you know that magnolia flowers bloom before their leaves? And that the Japanese see them as symbols of a person's chi energy or life -force? They use the bark of the tree in medicine for reinvigorating that very energy. In the language of flowers they mean nobility, love of nature and the sublime, not to mention magnificence. They're also the emblematic flower of the American South. I happen to think they're just absolutely fantabulous! Not as popular as cherry blossoms, but more magnificent for their hybrid state between shrub and tree, flower and leaf and beautiful, unique blooms. Anyway...

Magnolia

Is it a flower? 

Is it a tree?
Early spring and

tulip-like cups 

held up to sky

drink in light, blush

deeper by the day,

bloom ferociously 

overnight.

A fluster of colour:

foliage rippled fuchsia

like the flush 

of a smile spreading.

Kindled keenness.
Tendernesses 
of love's timid touch. 

Bolstered by sun 

their shy hearts
soon unfurl (don't wait
for leaves) into 
goblets of delight, 
cups that runneth 
over. Flames of pink. 
Segmented stars. 
Water-lilies 
swept up into air, tepals 
poised like chandeliers.
A garden pageant
of grace. 

Behold, the definition 
of adorn. Array 
of flowers as big 
as your palms. 
Unabashed 
full swoon
sprawling beauty.

How in the blink 
of an eye - 

petal becomes bolder,

world becomes wonder. 


*tepals - the name for the leaf-like structures that we see as 'petals' on a magnolia flower