Peony
Paeonia lactiflora
frosted lips and sugar bones
how dare you break upon my eyes like that
what audacity she has, in her fullness, her unabashed vulnerability, quivering in the wind.
what else is there, other than beauty? she asks.
surely nothing that I have found. nothing worth filling my time with. I tell her, in all earnest.
I’m not merely a pretty face, to be fleetingly passed by, she sways. drop to your knees in front of me.
press your face into my center, lick my sweet sap, still deeper within, so my petals curl around your ears.
allow your irises to get drunk from witnessing me becoming undone for you, again and again.
lay with me here until the Moon tells me to fall. stay with me until we wither and fade into the Earth once more.
“The peony falls, spilling out yesterday’s rain.
Kobayashi Issa
“Young Woman with Peonies” Frederic Bazille
botanical identification
flowers: simple raceme, bowl shaped, white, pink, yellow, red petals, a wide variety of structures, 5-10 petals on one to double blossoms on another.
leaf and stem: glossy, dark green, biternate leaves, with 2-4 ft tall, strong upright stems.
her offerings
sight, smell, and touch medicine
eyes - ruffles amongst layers, amongst volume, amongst vivid whites, pinks, yellows and reds. a transfixation of the soul, you can barely tear your gaze away from their core. so hearty in their vivaviousness I have seen birds perch their whole body on top of their blooms.
nose - gentle, mild, sweetened earth, with a slight musk of rot as she ages. calling you back to your body and your own innate sweetness.
skin - smooth, supple, petals, almost pillow like with their density. you will wish their flesh could become your own, and you could walk home with your wrists being able to photosynthesize.
“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
peony fields at Adelman Peony Gardens, Oregon
* Peony (root) is also used medicinally as a decoction and tincture - primarily for relaxation of muscles and as a Yin tonic.
“Peonies” William Merrit Chase
queen of the underworld
PEONIES
This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers
and they open ---
pools of lace,
white and pink ---
and all day the black ants climb over them,
boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away
to their dark, underground cities ---
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,
the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding
all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again ---
beauty the brave, the exemplary,
blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?
(2004)
Mary Oliver