Thursday, June 16, 2022

High Dangerous

The color of hydrangeas, except for white hydrangeas, depends on the acidity of the soil. You can make pink hydrangeas turn blue by increasing the acidity of your soil.
~FTD


Happy Poetry Friday, y'all! I was hoping I could turn a ridiculous, but lyrical, passage in Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome into a poem but I ran short on time. I've been busy as a moth in a mitten.

Looking forward to Father's Day this weekend! Also a baby shower for our neighbor. Today's poem gives a peek into a parent's heart.


High Dangerous
by Catherine Pierce

is what my sons call the flowers—
purple, white, electric blue—

pom-pomming bushes all along
the beach town streets.

I can’t correct them into
hydrangeas, or I won’t.

Bees ricochet in and out
of the clustered petals,

and my sons panic and dash
and I tell them about good...

read the rest here

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Michelle Kogan has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Michelle!

8 comments:

Irene Latham said...

Busy as a moth in a mitten! :) I love the hydrangea fact, but what it doesn't say is how difficult it is to raise soil acidity... much easier to lower acidity! xo

jama said...

Didn't know that about hydrangea colors!! Interesting poem, and I also love "busy as a moth in a mitten." :)

Mary Lee said...

Adding my love for "busy as a moth in a mitten!" And now I'll never look at hydrangeas again without whisper-shouting "High Dangerous!!"

Linda B said...

I do love hydrangeas & don't see many here but grew up with so many in MO. Thanks for the sweetness in the poem, Tabatha & taking time to share phrases it seems all of us who visited will remember, even if you are "busy as a moth in a mitten!"

Michelle Kogan said...

"High Dangerous" how intriguing that her kids came upon that… Thanks for Pierce's poem. I have a couple of hydrangea's one's already started to flower but I haven't gotten around to adding my extra acid-aiding-blue yet, hope to soon. I've been busy too, like many of my bees, thanks Tabatha!

Patricia Franz said...

High Dangerous! Such a beautiful elegy to childhood innocence! Thank you for sharing it. Also love "busy as a moth in a mitten" :)

Karen Edmisten said...

You made me laugh with, "busy as a moth in a mitten." That's a poem I want to read when you have time to write it! :)

Bridget Magee said...

cool flower fact and poem, Tabatha! Hope you are finding your way out of your mitten... :)