The Orchard and the Gathering of Flowers in Wyoming

The Orchard and the Gathering of Flowers in Wyoming
The Orchard

We go into it at night,
In Wyoming an orchard is the
only city around, so many blossoms going up
into trees like lights
coming down.

In the pickup, heads on the tailgate,
we lie on last year's hay and wait
for the orchard to bloom
A great horned owl sweeps between
trees and if to cropdust the rising
sap with white for the flowers.
"The first blossom to come," you say,
"I'll give the apple that grows there to you,

Another owl lands
on a bare branch and drops
a plug of icebones to the roots.
Under him, the tree does not think of
the sap's struggle.
I listen to your heart. Divided by
beats and rests, it says yes, then no, then yes
stirred by a hand too big to see.
We watch the stars.

Tonight so many of them fall.
Gretel Ehrlich

The Orchard and the Gathering of Flowers in Wyoming
Flower Gathering

I left you in the morning,
And in the morning glow
you walked away beside me
To make me sad to go.
Do you know me in the gloaming,
Gaunt and dusty gray with roaming?
Are you dumb because you know me not,
Or dumb because you know?

All for me? And not a question
For the faded flowers gay
That could take me from beside you
For the ages of a day?
They are yours, and be the measure
Of their worth for you a treasure,
The measure of the little while
That I've been long away.
Robert Frost


Closed eyes can't see the white roses,
Cold hands can't hold them, you know,
Breath that is stilled can not gather
The odors that sweet from them blow
Death, with a peace beyond dreaming,
Its children of earth doth endow;
Life is the time we can help them,
So give them the flowersnow!

Here are the struggles and striving,
Here are the cares and the tears;
Now is the time to be smoothing
The frowns and the furrows and fear,
What to closed eyes are kind sayings?
What to hushed heart is deep vow?
Naught can avail after parting,
So give them the flowers now!

Just a kind word or a greeting;
Just a warm grasp or a smile,
There are the flowers that will lighten
The burdens for many a mile.
After the journey is over
What is the use of them; how
Can they carry them who must be carried?
O, give them the flowers now!

Blooms from the happy heart's garden
Plucked in the spirit of love;
Blooms that are eartlhy reflections
Of flowers that blossom above.
Words cannot tell what a measure
Of blessing such gifts will allow
To dwell in the lives of many,
So give them the flowers now!
Leigh M. Hodges

Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly
and without law, and must be plucked where it is found,
and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration."
- D.H.Lawrence

Where flowers bloom so does hope.
- Lady Bird Johnson

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.
- Heinrich Heine

The Earth Laughs in Flowers
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you pass by the color purple
in a field and don't notice it,
God gets real pissed off.
- Alice Walker

One of the most attractive things about
the flowers is their beautiful reserve.
- Henry David Thoreau

At my age flowers scare me.
- George Burns