Home > Lies and Hiding > Rosehips

Rosehips

March 30, 2006 Leave a comment Go to comments

In another valley, the root
of nostalgia, even now
from this distance,
flowers open

to pearls of blood,
the heart about to turn
hard, like the knob
of a door left ajar.

Written by Maria Benet, of Alembic.

  1. Mary Alexandra Agner
    March 30, 2006 at 4:00 pm | #1
    Reply | Quote

    This is wonderful. I love all the dual body-flower words you use.

  2. Soen Joon
    March 30, 2006 at 11:12 pm | #2
    Reply | Quote

    Wow; the feeling of “hard-heartedness” as central to memory, and longing; how we tend to crystallize a place, a person, into a fixed image…

    Wonderful.

  3. beth
    March 31, 2006 at 3:00 pm | #3
    Reply | Quote

    Beautiful, terse, condensed, and intense. Congratulations, Maria.

  4. leslee
    March 31, 2006 at 8:18 pm | #4
    Reply | Quote

    Wonderful. Perfect word choices, and none too many. Crystalline.

  5. patry
    April 1, 2006 at 11:12 pm | #5
    Reply | Quote

    The door left ajar–neither fully opened, nor closed
    as the source of great pain–is so startling and vivid.
    I am always amazed and impressed by poets who use brevity
    like a knife as you do here.

  6. Dave
    April 2, 2006 at 4:45 pm | #6
    Reply | Quote

    That mysterious opening line keeps making me reread it, round and round, from open door to valley, everything about to turn – taut. I like this poem even better than your last one.

  7. maria
    April 3, 2006 at 1:14 pm | #7
    Reply | Quote

    Thank you all for these appreciative comments. I have been so swamped with life (and mostly off-line, too) that I haven’t had a chance to check back here until now.