The small San Diego garden plot lies waiting. Remains stripped bare from summer past. Green straggling leggy vines meander over and under blunt-cut branches of a now anonymous plant. Dried tall corn stalks stand in leaning stance, blown by winds or simply bent from lack of care once the cobs were picked.
Long woody stems are capped by dry flower tops, their name a mystery to me. Brown scaled outer shell still holds tight to popped open pods. Each pod is perhaps six inches across and contains what looks like spiderweb short wisps of silken threads. I am smitten by these long-past-their-prime blooms and try to capture their beauty in photos – some in monotone black and white, others in their natural earth like tones. I am sad to know these plants, beautiful in their drying state, will soon be cleared as new seed is sown.
migratory bird
transports dried seed in plumage
beauty travels far
Photos taken Saturday, on a walk through the beautiful campus of San Diego State University. We came upon a small garden plot by the art buildings. It was obviously left untended until spring, when it will be cleared and replanted.
Written for Haibun Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Today Frank asks us to write about the coming spring. Haibun: two or three tight paragraphs of prose (must be true) followed by a haiku that invokes a season.
lillian the home poet 
Trust you to notice beauty in the disregarded, Lillian! Such wonderful photographs. Beauty certainly does travel far.
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Thank you, Sarah. I was truly just fascinated by this plant! 🙂
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Wonderful photos, Lill! It’s great to read your haibun, which has transported me to San Diego and the garden plot. I love the way you describe the dried tall corn stalks and the pods on the mystery plant. Beauty does indeed travel far – through your words and images.
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Thank you for such a wonderfully kind comment here, Kim. I really was fascinated with this little garden plot and its remains.
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Beautiful shots Lillian. Love the description of the garden and the seeds.
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Thank you!
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I think the intricacy of a seed-pod is something we often overlook and knowing how the seeds that will be bloom in spring and summer to come…
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It was really beautiful – especially when you look closely!
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I enjoyed the visit to the garden. The plant you describe reminds me of milkweed, whose pods open to dandelion-like seeds which spread to the four winds!
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I agree….saw milkweed often when we lived in Iowa….it is much smaller and is pointed at the top of the pod as I recall. This had the shape of a sun flower but it wasn’t. Thus – a mystery flower!
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Terrific haibun, lovely haiku, and fantastic photos; wonderful sense of place, vigorous with detail.
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Thank you thank you, Glenn! 🙂 So good to see you here today….maybe just my not being here every single time lately, but I’ve missed you?
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Wonderful photos and haibun.
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Thank you, Mary!
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How glorious to find the vestiges of dead flowers. Yes indeed, beauty does travel far. I cleared off the ghosts of my garden this past weekend when it was warm. The bees are buzzing and want out of their hive!
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I LOVED the idea of you with a stethoscope listening to the hive 🙂
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I love the imagistic way in which you tell the story of these passing flowers. Combined with your photos, and what a sublime delight your haibun is!
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Thank you, Frank! So very glad you enjoyed….I really enjoyed taking the photos!
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You’ve captured the beauty of garden’s remnants with your words and photos.
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Sometimes the garden’s remains can be as beautiful, but in a different way, than when it is bursting with flowers, fruits and vegetables!
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Looks like the seeds parachutes will carry them far from Mum! Spring is always a delight isn’t it?
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It absolutely is!!!
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i feel the solemn reverie for the long tall and now soon to be forgotten plants, you bade them such a sweet farewell. i so love your haiku, one of those that just stick to the tongue like caramel.
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Oh my…..I must remember that line…..sticking to the tongue like caramel! Now I’m hungry for a treat! 🙂 Reminds me of taffy apples that I used to enjoy in my youth 🙂
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what a wonderful view of San Diego through your eyes (and your lens). Lovely Lillian!
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So glad you enjoyed, Linda! 🙂 Thank you.
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I am smitten, too, by those dried fluffy tops. I love your description. On the West Coast, our temperatures are mild, and I am rather amazed at all the green things poking their heads up on my balcony. It feels too early, as it is still snowing not too far from here. Still, I am excited to see them!
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Oh yes….we spent many years in Iowa and since 1997 in Boston….here in San Diego now for 2+ months avoiding Boston’s winter. I remember the beautiful crocus poking out their heads only to be met far too often with a light covering of snow, winter’s last hurrah. I always imagined the shivering!
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There is something beautiful about those dried feathery seeds. Wonderful photos. I like the thought of them traveling far with birds.
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As you can tell with how many photos I took, I was just enthralled with this plant! I couldn’t figure out what it was though…it had the height and look of a sunflower but I’m sure it wasn’t.
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