Sunrise

Sunrise
Sunrise on Sunset Beach

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Weeds Have Names

Athens, Georgia
September 24, 2014; revised August 29, 2019

With thanks to the Nature Ramblers, led by Dale Hoyt and Linda Chafin, (and Hugh Nourse, who has moved to St. Louis) with Don Hunter, photographer. Some of Don's images from September 18 are reproduced below. No botanicals were harmed in the production of this poem.

Weeds have names we never know: 
the world is filled with hidden souls.

I walk down moist paths 
in the abundance of summer 
through dew drops and deer ticks 
to hang on new words, happy 

as a puppy with a play-toy. A boy 
exploring the borders of Eden 
would sense the names assigned 
by Adam, though science prefers 

the precision of Latin – verbesina alternifolia 
is an asteraceae of order asterales
featuring a flower in the form of capitula
surrounded by involucral bracts

Weeds have names we’ll never know, 
but ‘wingstem' sticks to unschooled minds 
and ‘dog fennel’ channels bliss, 
the smell of boyhood forts in fields. 

Glory is goldenrod and crownbeard 
when old fields glow yellow  
against blue-purple tips of towering ironweed 
and lavender balls of tall thistle. 

Peace comes to the cusp of fall 
on white waves of frostweed 
and ivory boneset, in pokeweed 
and patches of rabbit tobacco. 

By the margins of forest, beautyberry 
thrive and grape ferns unfurl
their sensitive fronds. The world 
bursts with hidden soul 

and my back yard goes ragged.
Elephant foot in exuberance 
grows ungainly shoots 
branching through odd angles 

to tiny flowers, which lend 
the lawn a purple hue. Weeds 
have names we cannot know 
expressed in scent and pollen. 

Bumblebees consume their sweetness.
Fritillaries share their bodies. 
They toil and spin their secret 
lives, they reproduce, and soon 

they die. We barely sense a hidden 
soul, clothed in rude glory 
exceeding kingly robe and throne.
They make on life a modest claim, 

but each one bears its own true name 
known to God and them alone.



Frostweed (by Don Hunter)












Boneset (by Don Hunter)













Boneset and Camphor (by Don Hunter)










Thistle Flower (by Don Hunter)











Golden Aster (by Don Hunter)














Elephant's Foot (by Don Hunter)














Beautyberry
(by Bob Ambrose)