botanica is about exploration, growth, and healing. a rising up against the darkness to rejoice in new life and light. it doesn’t require abundance. only a celebration of the smallest stem breaking through the soil with a determination to survive. i kept thinking of this poem by Mary oliver in my mind as i worked. for me, it reads as a defiance against the night and how we might learn to rest in the light of redemption.

POPPIES

By Mary Oliver

The Poppies Send Up Their

Orange Flares; Swaying

In The Wind, Their Congregations

Are A Levitation

Of Bright Dust, Of Thin

And Lacy Leaves.

There Isn’t A Place

In This World That Doesn’t

Sooner Or Later Drown

In The Indigos Of Darkness,

But Now, For A While,

The Roughage

Shines Like A Miracle

As It Floats Above Everything

With Its Yellow Hair.

Of Course Nothing Stops The Cold,

Black, Curved Blade

From Hooking Forward -

Of Course

Loss Is The Great Lesson.

But I Also Say This; That Light

Is An Invitation

To Happiness,

And That Happiness,

When It’s Done Right,

Is A Kind Of Holiness,

Palpable And Redemptive.

Inside The Bright Fields,

Touched By Their Rough And Spongy Gold,

I Am Washed And Washed

In The River

Of Earthly Delight -

And What Are You Going To Do -

What Can You Do

About It -

Deep, Blue Night?