Flower for the Day Magnolia 6-15-19

We have a magnolia tree by our garage. It has been growing slowly for more than 45 years. 

This year has been exceptional as the flowers have been blossoming for over a month. They start as a firm bud,

which grows into a small blossom,

producing a beautiful flower with a pleasing deep scent. 

And then we get more and more. In the fall the tree produces spectacular red seed balls.

Cloud

by Sandra Cisneros

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in  

this sheet of paper.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh     

Before you became a cloud, you were an ocean, roiled and  murmuring like a mouth. 

         You were the shadows of a cloud crossing over a field of tulips.

 You were the tears of a man who cried  into a plaid handkerchief.
 You were the sky without a hat.
 Your heart puffed and flowered like sheets drying on a line. 

And when you were a tree, you listened to the trees and the tree things trees told you.
 You were the wind in the wheels of a red  bicycle.
 You were the spidery Maria tattooed on the hairless arm of a boy in downtown Houston

You were the rain rolling off the  waxy leaves of a magnolia tree.
 A lock of straw-colored hair  wedged between the mottled pages of a Victor Hugo novel.
 A  crescent of soap.
 A spider the color of a fingernail.
 The black nets  beneath the sea of olive trees.
 A skein of blue wool.
 A tea saucer  wrapped in newspaper.
 An empty cracker tin.
 A bowl of blueberries in heavy cream.
 White wine in a green-stemmed glass.

          And when you opened your wings to wind, across the punched- tin sky

            above a prison, those condemned to death and  those condemned to life 

           watched how smooth and sweet a white  cloud glides.