Slice of Life: Ode to a Yellow Succulent


Thanks to Two Writing Teachers who host Slice of Life, and the entire supportive SOL community. 

For over thirty years I have met with a group of women friends on the long weekend in May. For the last couple of decades we have been meeting at a three bedroom cabin overlooking the ocean. On Saturday we went meandering along a path circumnavigating a small peninsula that divides the ocean from a secluded bay. At the very tip we discovered sedum blooming. I fell in love. Later I returned by myself with my camera and these darlings wouldn't let go of me. I sat there perched on lichen painted rock, admiring them while this poem wrote itself.


Ode to a Yellow Succulent

Look at you,
glorious, brave and hardy,
daring to thrive at the edge of no man's land

Look at you,
staking your claim in time and space
here at the perimeter of sphagnum moss
where gatekeepers of the land,
black basalt sentinels,
rounded and potted from conflict with ancient seas,
mark time in millennium


Look at you,
standing stalwart at rigid attention
serene in the face of gale and salt spray
radiant in hues of green, pink, blue, and red
flaunting your yellow crown
proudly proclaiming,
I am here,
Look at me!



23 comments:

  1. How lovely... I love how you pay attention to the world. Those succulents are amazing, but you brought them to life even more!

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    1. Thank you. I have seen them every year, but this time they seemed to shout out at me!

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  2. Yellow succulents have earned my respect...thanks to your lovely poem!

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    1. I'm so glad - they are just amazing little plants.

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  3. So nice to read and see you passion for the flowers we can only enjoy in these moments. Your poem captures your passion forever.

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    1. Thanks - I also brought one home with me to remind me of how precious all kinds of life are.

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  4. I just love the structure of this poem- and how you begin and end it. What a gorgeous sedum you spotted.

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    1. Thanks Lisa - there were so many of them growing and glowing along the last outposts of earth.

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  5. I love succulent blooms, dainty and hardy! Beautiful voice in this, Cheriee! Love "staking your claim in time and space".

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    1. Thanks so much Linda - I felt so much the contrast between the timelessness of the rocks and ocean and the way this plant asserted itself into it all.

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  6. I had no idea that sedum could look so spectacularly. Your ode to its hardiness is lovely.

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  7. Me again. This would be a very nice post for the Salon that I run on Wednesdays. Do consider joining us.

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    1. Thanks for the invitation. You will have to send me a link.

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  8. Cheerie...isn't that sedum an interesting plant? I can't seems to kill it, even though I accidentally pull it out of the ground. Shallow roots, and it just keeps on growing. Love your piece, as usual! maribethbatcho

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  9. Gorgeous poem! I love these sedums too. Have a few in one area of my garden

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    1. Thanks Carrie, I brought one home with me. I will plant it here and hope to bring some of it to my place in the Okanagan.

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  10. Wonderful noticing, Cheriee. As I read your poem, I kept imagining the plant's voice shouting, "Look at me," and then the last stanza delivered :)

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    1. Thanks so much Brian - That is pretty much how it happened.

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  11. I love the way that your friendships with your group of friends seem to mirror the indomitable plants - firmly rooted for over thirty years, and still a thing of beauty!

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    1. Yes! It's all about trust - after this length of time we trust each other completely.

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  12. Lovely! Thanks for linking me!

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