Passionflower

Quest in a Ghazal

Last night she asked you for a passion flower --
that sweet lover's metaphor, a passion flower!

How would you know one if you found it,
having never seen before, a passion flower?

You search old books of myth and alchemy,
in all the convoluted lore, a passion flower.

And yet, it seems outlandish and exotic,
growing on some far-off shore, a passion flower.

Why does she want it anyway, this wrangler's girl,
the sort who'd call "a bore" a passion flower?

She'd be much happier with a mountain meadow
all abloom with hellebore. A passion flower!

Better humor her for now, and offer this
ghazal of rhymes galore: your passion flower.

Taylor Graham

(Reprinted by permission of the poet. Thank you, Taylor.)

The ghazal (pronounced "ghuzzle") is a Persian and Urdu poetry form that has influenced and inspired poets in many other languages. Read more about it here. The ghazal has also become its own genre of music and song in India and Pakistan, as described here.

The passionflower pictured above ("Passiflora caerulea. Native of Paraguay.") is just about open, after three months of nothing but foliage. The widely reported symbolism of the passionflower is rivaled in its bogosity only by The DaVinci Code, if you ask me (sniff), but I do like how the flower's used in this stained glass window from a Texas church.

Comments

[Jessie]

Please tell me how you take care of your passion flower in the winter. Thanks!!!

[Chan S.]

Well, it'll be a bit of a challenge. This is the first season for the passionflower in my garden. It's supposed to be hardy only to zone 6, and I'm in zone 5, bordering zone 4. This plant's in a bed that faces south and gets full sun, with the house's foundation and a concrete patio only a few feet away, making it a more favorable microclimate than most other locations in my garden...so I'm going to try a protective cage with burlap and leaf mulch for winter protection, and we'll see if it makes it. Wish me luck!