Yesterday, one of my rose bushes surprised me with this gorgeous first bloom of the season.Fellow Los Angeles area blogger Kevin (at The Jimson Weed Gazette) and I recently had a brief email conversation that involved a reference to Max Von Sydow in Hannah and her Sisters. Von Sydow plays one of the best curmudgeons in cinematic history, and his character's crusty view is contrasted against a story line woven around an impossibly beautiful ee cummings poem.
Spring has a similar approach to storytelling. It juxtaposes all kinds of gaudy hope, promise and loveliness against the cold, grouchy bones of winter. How nice for all of us.
That cummings poem featured in the film has a lot to say about spring's first rose. (I'll bet it looked something like this one.)
21 comments:
Oh yay, I get to make the first comment! This is soooo unexpected. What a delight! I love the intricate detail and color variations of this macro of your rose. Isn't it fun when those first blooms pop up and surprise you? We have planted so much over the past few weeks and now with all of the rain (sans the hail that came, thank you very much) everything is so green and lush, dotted with pinks, lavenders, reds and yellows.
Ode to spring
oh beauty reigns
color's hue
from winter's pains
Come to me
on robin's wing
gente breeze's
song we sing
Hale to
Mother Nature's glory
paints for me
her springtime glory
That should be Hail not hale. SORRY about that.
Beautiful shot of this new rose. It does sort give you the springtime hope!
I'm such a dork. but I'm not going to erase the original message. The final word of the poem should read story. I need more coffee.
In my head I've used the Max von Sydow character a hundred times as a warning bot to turn too serious even when it seems accurate or logical.
On the other hand, roses like yours provide an entirely different message. Sometimes I switch back and forth a dozen times a day.
What a beautiful photo! I loved reading your post today!
Looking at this rose makes me wish that I were a poet. I see gossamer wings, a ballerina's tutu, a painting with yellow slowly blended into white. But mostly I see Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Thanks, Laurie. I'm cheered when I look outside toward a gloomy sky and I know that in your garden lies your first rose bloom.
What a gorgeous photographic ode to Georgia O'keeffe! This could be one of her paintings, with the subtle cream, lemon and lilac petals opening to reveal a fiery heart.
VERY sexy!
Let's not go down the road of trying to interpret Georgia O'Keefe's flower images. Suffice to say she came to mind immediately when I saw this pic and not because it looked like an anatomy lesson.
I'm a big Woody Allen fan and Hannah And Her Sisters is probably among my top ten favs but it sounds like I either forgot about the e.e. cummings reference or it went right over my head.
Wayne... why don't you want to go down that road? Like flowers, the beauty of anatomy is in the eye of the beholder. :–)
Gorgeous photo.
Best curmudgeons in cinematic history: Here's one -- Walter Brennan as Judge Roy Bean in the Westerner. He may have been quick to hang a man, but he also had a crazy soft side for Lily Langtree.
I looooooove this photo. My gosh, put this in a gallery, will ya?
One of my favorite movies (before I stopped watching Woody Allen's films as a protestor of 1 - the whole thing with Mia's adopted daughter...yuck!) I love the poem's last lines - what an image it evokes.
Another line from a song For Good in Wicked has that same effect on me "handprint on my heart", esp. when sung.
I was thinking the same thing, Anonymous.
My favorite curmudgeon in film history? Walter Matthau in just about anything he did. Grumpy Old Men was good, but in his final film, Hanging Up, he played a terminally ill man with 3 daughters - Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, and Lisa Kudrow. It was advertised as a comedy but it was way too depressing and close to home for those dealing with failing parents. He was battling cancer at the time it was filmed and died shortly thereafter.
soft enough to eat!
That's beautiful. Suitable for framing!
Well Wayne brought it up and I"ll finish it. Yes, O'Keeffe comes to mind and exquisitely. She is one of my favorite artists and one I taught to my third graders every year that I taught. She saw things like most of us never will. She was a woman before her time and I will never cease to admire her work. Bravo Laurie.
V
The scene you linked has the one line I remember from that movie, with Max Von Sydow saying if Jesus came back, and could see what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up. Apart from its accuracy, I love that the line goes to an actor who so famously played Jesus in blue-eyed Technicolor, back in the 60s. Perfect.
And of course, I love your rose. 8^)
That photo's a stunner, Laurie. I will look at it again and again.
Very Georgia O'Keefe...simple, elegant, sensual...
Hi everyone,
It's been a long week, so I needed a little soft, floral beauty. I don't usually do flowers (my sister Judy is the master of brilliant pictures of flowers) but I had such a good subject with this first rose. (I also have a great super-macro setting on one of my cameras!)
Thanks for all the kind words. And welcome, Chieftess!
Until tomorrow...
What a beautiful photo! I loved reading your post today!..
Thanks for sharing...
Thank you..
___________________
Andrew
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