Black-Eyed Susan

Black-eyed Susan~
The name doesn't fit:
Your eye's not an eye--
So much like brown velvet.

Susan~
The Hebrew Shoshanna
The name of the lily.
But you're the cousin
Of the sunflower and daisy.

Susan, oh Susan,
You old friend of mine,
What then was your name
When the Maker made time?

Yellow for joy~
Reminder of heaven*--
Multi flowers in brown**--
Keeper of secrets,
In simplicity renown.
     --Marie Byars, 2019 (c)


*Romans chapter 8:  all creation waits to be renewed when Christ returns. 
**The "center" in flowers in the composite family is a cluster of minute flowers. What are often called the petals are really "rays."

St. Paul, Minnesota; July, 2019

Botanical Gardens
Albuquerque, NM

Lake County (suburban Chicago), Illinois;
July, 2018

The ones which inspired this poem
Prescott, Arizona; August, 2019

My own, which came up a year later:

A field of Black-eyed Susans 
that became naturalized in Flagstaff, AZ
October, 2022:

Black-eyed Susans in south central Texas 
get a maroon hue near the center

More Flowers of the Upper Midwest

Travels (related to the Christian life) took me to Minnesota recently. Though I love the southwest, there are things there I find refreshing in the Midwest:

Johnny Jump-Up; violet strain

" '26So if you cannot do such a small thing,' [said Jesus] 'why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!…' "

Berean Study Bible

Refreshing Rivers

These pictures are from the White River, a tributary to the Salt River in Arizona. The Salt River and another tributary, the Black River, form the boundary between two Apache Indian tribes in Arizona.

Scarlet Petnstemmon

A Grand Canyon

A spot where you can drive down to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.  Not quite as "splendid" as in the National Park, but still beautiful.

At the confluence of Diamond Creek & the Colorado River, May 2019. 

Sledding

2006, Northern Arizona

2012, East of Albuquerque

2017, Yellowstone

Snowcoaching

Jan, 2019 near Grand Canyon

Feb, 2019 N. AZ

Sledding in summer clothes?  Fooled you.

2009, White Sands, NM

St. Patrick's Day

There’s an Isle, a green Isle, set in the sea,

     Here’s to the Saint that blessed it!

And here’s to the billows wild and free

     That for centuries have caressed it!

Here’s to the day when the men that roam

     Send longing eyes o’er the water!

Here’s to the land that still spells home

     To each loyal son and daughter!

Here’s to old Ireland—fair, I ween,

     With the blue skies stretched above her!

Here’s to her shamrock warm and green,

     And here’s to the hearts that love her!

---Jean Blewett, Canadian; 1872-1934

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

[for winter, nature & Valentine's Day]

Now winter nights enlarge

The number of their hours;

And clouds their storms discharge

Upon the airy towers.

Let now the chimneys blaze

And cups o’erflow with wine,

Let well-turned words amaze

With harmony divine.

Ft. Tuthill, Northern Arizona

Now yellow waxen lights

Shall wait on honey love

While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights

Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense

With lovers’ long discourse;

Much speech hath some defense,

Though beauty no remorse.

All do not all things well;

Some measures comely tread,

Some knotted riddles tell,

Some poems smoothly read.

The summer hath his joys,

And winter his delights;

Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,

They shorten tedious nights.

     --By Thomas Campion; ~1601

b.12 February 1567, d. 1 March 1620