Peonies!

Another really crazy busy day for me....up to Sydney early, getting a couple of paintings framed....having new lens put into glasses (due to biking accident), and other stuff!!!

But i was greeted this morning with the astonishing beauty of my peonies....this never fails to give me such please...and so, as i often do, here is the amazing poem by Mary Oliver:

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?