Yarroway, Yarroway, bear a white blow,
One of the herbs dedicated to the Evil One
yet daubed by Achilles (except on his heel?),
loved by butterflies, hummingbirds, bees,
none of whom need to know if another
loves them back, none of whom need
any secret spells to determine by.
If my love love me, my nose will bleed now.
If my love love me, we are only in the garden,
crushing aromatic leaves in our fingers,
ignorant of any history less happy than this
present, blameless of curses, spells.
Devil’s Nettle. Bad Man’s Plaything.
Bitterish, astringent
yarrow.
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Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
So glad the bees like it. They live in the moment with no worries.
Yes! They don’t care whether this flower has a weirdly dark history. It just tastes good. 🙂
Very nice! You hit a nerve of mine with this. I have never thought of love this way. Brilliant! I am notoriously insisting on form everywhere so I am not impressed by the poem, but the message is sublime. Fantastic! 🙂
Thanks, Anders! I take praise where I find it, even if it’s a bit mixed. 🙂 I’m just glad to hear that some aspect of this poem struck a chord for you.
The message is fantastic. It is really nice.
By the way, your blog is beautiful. Classy.
Thank you! That’s great to hear.
Love how you intuitively include the dark in your work, a refreshing presence amid our current nauseatingly disastrous current of ” only white light thank you very much ” …well done
Thanks, Kutamun! I went a little dark this time because this flower has such a strangely dark history. When you look at it, you’d never think it belongs to the devil, but apparently a lot of other people did think so. It was fun to tell its dark story.
they area rather lovely simple flower…their history is interesting but to me this talks of not judging by the history…and enjoying it in this present moment for what it is…nicely written marilyn…i had to read it a few times to really appreciate it…
Thanks, Brian! I appreciate that you took the time to read it a few times. 🙂
I too read it several times ~ I like the creative perspective from the aromatic herbs ~ The creatures appreciating it for it is, no spells needed ~
Thank you, Grace! I have some in my garden but have never smelled it. I intend to crush some leaves the next time I’m there. (But I won’t use them as snuff.)
Wish I was a bee or a butterfly!
Me, too!
Regarding your comment at wolfsrosebud; for the basis of the poem I used the prompt from d
verse last week at: http://dversepoets.com/2013/06/27/listen-to-this-anaphora/ I then attempted to enhance with my own take on the form.
loved the garden theme in your work… with a twist of love… had a friend bring me an armful when our family was financially down… that was over a decade ago… but i still remember the love and prayers that came will the dried flowers and their pungent aroma
Thanks very much! Yarrow was not bitter or devilish for you, then. 🙂