September Garden
The magenta petals of cosmos
surround a circle
of starry stamens
like an Elizabethan ruff
of pleated silk.
They are a beacon
to bees and butterflies,
now in a delirious frenzy
to gather every particle of pollen
before the petals drop
and summer’s bounty
fades into memory.
Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023
Please be sure to visit Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm for the Poetry Friday Roundup.
Reading to the Core 
“like an Elizabethan ruff” — yes! Perfect.
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Elizabethan ruff! That is so fresh and just-right! xo
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First of all, I am so entranced by cosmos this fall that I have written myself a note to plant some next spring!
Second of all, it cracks me up that both you and Molly are in with garden poems. If I hadn’t been committed to winter for this week, I could have joined you both (zinnias instead of cosmos, and a messy garden that’s not as beautifully wild as Molly’s)!
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I had a big bed of cosmos at my other home, now your poem tells me to plant here! They are so lovely, as you wrote, with ‘starry stamens’, a beacon to the bees. Wonderful celebration for them, Catherine!
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Beautiful! Makes me wonder if the idea for an Elizabethan Ruff came from a flower originally!
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How beautiful! For so long I was desperate for an end to summer, and now that it’s on its way out, I find it bittersweet to see the last few signs of the season fading. Aren’t we humans funny things!
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Those magenta petals are beautiful pleated silk. Lovely poem.
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So much to love in your poem…
Makes readers fall in love with these flowers and understand their importance to bees and butterflies, too.
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Hope you’re finding the summer wind-down less frenzied than those bees 🙂
Beautiful word for pleated silk!
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Oh, I do love that comparison to an Elizabethan ruff…I will look at flowers differently now.
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And here’s another sigh of delight at “Elizabethan ruff” — Perfect! And wow! The color of that cosmos! Gorgeous! My gardens (other than the phlox and some tall zinnias) have been decimated by snails and slugs this year due to all the rains. Here’s to finding inspiration in the garden!
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lovely poem with the sense of seasons changing and summer “fades into memory.” “Elizabethan ruff” is an apt description of your cosmos. Well done.
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“starry stamens” – sigh! Thank you for the lovely simplicity of your post.
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Catherine, the image of an Elizabethan ruffle is striking. Yes, summer’s bounty in the format of messy herb and perennial gardens are real in my backyard. It is sad on one hand that the bounty will fade into memory but yet the thought of a fall garden with autumn colors excites me.
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💙 your “Elizabethan ruff
of pleated silk.
The petals look just like that. Beautiful poem to match this gem of a flower, thanks Catherine!
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I love thinking about that delirious frenzy.
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Beautiful poem! love the line “now in a delirious frenzy.” I love flowers and gardening, too! But other than at the school garden I managed, I never had luck growing Cosmos. Thanks for sharing.
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This is gorgeous, Catherine, and I, too, love your metaphor. I know it because I am thinking I will remember it each time I see Cosmos…one of my favorite flowers. I guess we all really want to look like flowers, don’t we? xo, a.
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