In my room where I write
With my desk and my Mac
and my basket of lavender
and my magazine rack
I have books I have read
And some I have not
Most that I remember
But some I’ve forgot
I have sculptures I’ve made
from driftwood I’ve found
and other keepsakes
lie dotted around
All these treasures around me
Inspiration to find
Putting pen to clean paper
As words come to mind
Yellow, warming, lifts my soul
Catches me and comforts. Gives me strength
Encourages smiles when smiles are scarce.
Breathes contentment.
It is a friend, closer in the summertime;
More distant in winter chill. But always there.
Always listening. Always rooting for my best interests.
It is lavender and jasmine and honeysuckle
Combined and lingering in the evening air.
I've long had a passion for lavender and
that time of years' here with clippers in hand
my Trug* will be filled with fragrance divine
which I've grown through the year and now is all mine
Sometimes there are casualties, plants come and go
some prosper well, but others (you know)
may give a few flowers then give up the ghost
but that's not too often and thankfully most
at this time of year when summer is high
bring my lavender heaven replete for a sigh
Yes, I treasure this small lavender
that's growing by the wall
as unlike all my others
I'm surprised it's here at all
And yet it keeps on growing
and flowering each year
to bring to me the pleasure
that I get because it's here
and diminutive it may be
but that holds no sway with me
for a lavender is a lavender
so I will let it be
My lavender's showing promise
it never fails to please
and yet I feel a growing urge
this passion to appease
the need to find more hardy stock
and plant them in this place
to yield more of that loveliness
that comes with summer's grace
So I am on a nursery quest
more lavender to acquire
as its majestic fragrance
fulfils this passion's fire
I'm salvaging some lavender
it wasn't happy where it was
so I've found a place, a sunny spot
whence it can thrive because
I'll tend it more and water it
and trim the bits that die
so hopefully some flowers will come
to harvest come July
Lavender production here in full swing
its fragrance filling the air
as jars of pure loveliness wait to be filled
on the table in front of me there
Every seed saved, the purple and mauve
cathartic this labour divine
Some given away, some kept just for me
as all of this lavender's mine
Every year my lavender
features on this day
The twenty-third of each July
no matter, come what may
For this as each year passes
is that lavender time again
celebrating harvest time
from sunshine and the rain
And culminating in
this fragrance so divine
which comes from all the lavender
I pick around this time
Photo – one of my 2021 lavender harvests in my Sussex Trug – Jempics
‘That lavender time again’ is a theme recurring on an annual basis when, on 23rd July, I publish a new poem in the series. Here are trackbacks to the previous outings – (2020), (2019), (2018), (2017) & (2016)
A bumble bee for pollen
on my lavender today
the flowers are now at their best
so a cropping's on the way
Means the bumble bees
will have to find another source
but that won't be a problem
cos there's lots round here of course
And a cropping of some lavender
means my Trug will do its thing
holding stems of loveliness
now their flowering's a thing
Of course I'll capture that by photo
as more words that will inspire
My Sussex Trug and lavender
to treasure and admire
...all about me and my life in words. I write most days, carrying an ideas book around in which I capture a word snapshot of life around me. So there's a lot here about Sussex and the sea and anything else I see that inspires.
The pictures are mine too. Some taken to match a poem; some poems written to match a pic; others chosen because they work well with words written.
Jemverse is life in words. Hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing...
Jemverse 