PEONIES
The peonies, too heavy with their beauty,
slump to the ground. I had hoped
they would live forever but ever so slowly
day by day they’re becoming the soil of their birth
with a faint tang of deliquescence around them.
Next June they’ll somehow remember to come alive again,
a little trick we have or have not learned.
-Jim Harrison
Gladsome Lights 
This one is especially lovely — and so very true.
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A fine poem, and a new word: deliquescence. I’d never come across that one, but when I looked up the definition, and learned that it means “tending to melt or dissolve; especially, tending to undergo gradual dissolution and liquefaction by the attraction and absorption of moisture from the air,” I realized I finally have the word to describe what happens to certain wildflowers whose petals do, in fact, seem to dissolve away as they age: usually within one day.
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Thanks for that definition, Linda. I make as much mulch of spent flowers and trimmings as I can. It’s amazing how quickly they disappear.
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I had to look up the word deliquescence. My red ones and white ones are spent and the pink ones are going going and soon gone.
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I enjoy the description: they’re becoming the soil of their birth 🙂
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Peonies are altogether too short-lived. At least their flowers are. Like the others I had to look up deliquescence. Not sure if I’ll ever find myself using it in everyday conversation 🙂
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I loved this poem so much. The majority of my peonies are now becoming the soil of their birth. I think of you sometimes, Gretchen Joanna, especially when I’m on walks looking at the nature around me. God bless you.
Jody
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Thank you, Dear Jody ❤️
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