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La Vie en Rose
I came across that daft old ditty “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”
And wondered why its lyrics didn’t rhyme “tulips” with “true lips.”
I’ve learned, you see, that botany brings great linguistic power—
Like formulating works which vaunt the lilac and sunflower!
Now, had that song been mine I would have based it on some triolets
Within which I’d have mentioned rhododendrons, mums and violets.
I’d readily discuss plumeria and periwinkle
And lilies of the valley with a fond nostalgic twinkle;
I’d sing about azaleas and perhaps a pink petunia.
I’d praise the Venus Fly Trap (how can blooms get any lunier?)
There’s gladiola, honeysuckle and… what in tarnation?!
A marigold with fairy mold! Or is that a carnation?
A daisy—slightly hazy—and some sage from Abyssinia;
Gardenias, jasmine, lotus, iris and one crimson zinnia;
A peony upon a lea, a hill that’s daffodilly;
A slightly floppy poppy and a chilly calla lily;
Though laurel goes to those who throw a javelin and discus
I much prefer hydrangea, amaryllis and hibiscus.
But then I think of Edith Piaf’s song “La Vie en Rose”—
The perfect floral metaphor for love and how love grows.
A vision for the eye, a scent sensation for the nose…
That’s why of all the blooms on Earth, my favorite is the rose.
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Edelweiss
I’m not that unassuming bloom of song—
The one that’s pale and white and clean and bright.
Oh no, my naïve friends, you’ve got it wrong.
I’m tough as nails and grow from spit and spite.
I do not offer charming, star-shaped petals
For love, but as a patriotic symbol:
I’m etched on royal tombs, engraved on medals.
My home is out of reach unless you’re nimble
And fit to climb through lofty alpine passes
From Glockner westward to the Matterhorn.
You hike until your legs feel like molasses—
But find me and resolve will be reborn.
I’ve lived here since before the Romans’ time
Through jousts, two world wars, famine and disease.
Where rocky crags hold sway—that’s where I climb
Past crystal lakes, sharp peaks, and glacial freeze.
You think I sing of meadows, vales and fountains
But know proud edelweiss stands for much more—
No mere bucolic spirit of the mountains
But sheer resilience: blizzards, drought and war.
I’m master at surviving any blow.
Respect that when you bid me “bloom and grow.”
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Orchid Lover
The rainforest. A hungry jaguar roars,
A toucan caws and in the mossy-green
And damp I find her, beautiful. Pale pink.
She’s proud but spent. She waits with dignity
For dappled dusk to offer her release.
Ah, she was sultry once. So sensual;
Her lips were curved just like the Venus flesh
Polite society once whispered of
In sotto voce. She was sweet like candy,
And rosy-hued like coral from the sea.
Mmmm. Succulent like strawberries combined
With lychees—full of juice and overripe.
The femme fatale of flowers – how her tongue
And tantalizing textures made one thirst
For just one taste, one brief taboo caress!
Extravagant and rare, she carried echoes
Of feral elegance and worlds untamed,
Of jungles, flooding rain, of savage thoughts,
Of strange nocturnal visits—and yet she
Endured. For she was dangerous herself.
But oh, so ravishing! Transfixed, I see
Her posed and poised among Jurassic ferns.
My skin begins to tingle, my heart pounds.
So delicate she is. I press her damp
And silken petals to my stubbled cheek,
My sunburnt arms, the gooseflesh on my neck.
As she perfumes me with exotic scents
I close my eyes and breathe in Tropic Eros.
I gently touch those tempting parted lips
With trembling hands. Those orchid petals may
Be fading but they still evoke the pulse
Of life and memories of lustful youth,
Of novel thoughts, hot whispers, wanton smiles—
Arousing and seductive, achingly
Erotic as that last forbidden kiss.
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Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Wimauma, Florida.
These are three really interesting poems, and I say that because when I read the general title of “Three Flower Poems” I thought “Oh no… not another sentimental, sappy flood of Hallmark verse with floral-scented cliches!”
But Brian Yapko did not disappoint. He lived up to his deserved reputation as a creative, professional wordsmith. Each poem was delightful, in a different way.
“La Vie en Rose” is an exercise in rhyme — a poet’s display of his skill in finding appropriate sonic parallels that are unexpected and funny (“petunia/lunier” and “Abyssinia/zinnia” and “discus/hibiscus” were especially cute). And the poem has no message or moral — just the wonderful play of language dancing along the heptameters. And the reference to Piaf’s song is just enough to add an extra spark to the ending, so that the speaker can tell us his favorite bloom.
“Edelweiss” is all about pride, strength, toughness, and resilience — things that don’t normally come to mind when one thinks of the delicate white blossom high up in the Alps. But by giving a voice to the flower itself, the poet can imagine a flower that is somewhat annoyed by those who give it the reputation of being “soft” and “unassuming.” This little flower, in its harsh confines of a cold climate, has evolved to be just as tough as the cactus that has developed its unique strength in a dry desert.
“Orchid Lover” is the most daring of the three poems. The piece simply exudes sexuality, and is as suggestive as a striptease. Also, the atmosphere of a remote, tropical and dangerous jungle is maintained throughout, and the speaker is clearly a wanderer or explorer in this hot place. His finding of the orchid, and his deeply sensuous reaction to it, could almost be taken as an allegory of his meeting with some sultry, erotic woman as he wanders through the jungle.
In fact, the poem immediately brought to my mind the old film “The Naked Jungle,” starring Charlton Heston and a beautiful red-haired actress whose name escapes me right now. Their romantic relationship, in the midst of an absolutely savage and unforgiving South American jungle, is as hot as this poem about an orchid.
Thank you very much, Joe. I’m so pleased that you enjoyed these poems as they were, in a sense, inspired by the concerns you’ve expressed about cliches in poetry and the danger of falling into Hallmark-inspired poetic safe spaces. Sharing that concern, I determined to write poems about a quintessentially “poetic” subject but to make each of them slightly subversive or surprising in some way. The Rose poem therefore became a fantasy piece focused on verbal gymnastics; the Edelweiss poem became a dramatic monologue about a flower who is done being underestimated and who subverts and contradicts the tepid Rodgers & Hammerstein perspective; and Orchid Lover became a somewhat steamy jungle fantasy and an opportunity to create a mood piece.
I wanted to show that even traditional poetic subjects can be approached from a fresh angle. Your detailed comment tells me that I’ve succeeded. I’m very grateful for that!
A flurry of Yapko-clever ‘sonic parallels’ (as Joe points out), with a lovely tribute to the Rose — a flurry of little known facts about the ever popular Edelweiss — and a close-to-rated-X sizzler that has me wondering what websites you’ve been visiting, Brian! 🙂 3 great reads…
Thank you so much, Mark! You’ve managed to crack me up during a time which has been so bleak. I’m very grateful for that! What sites have I been visiting? None that are as interesting as all that. However, I do confess to watching Tiny Tim sing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (talk about bizarre!) as well as “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music before writing these poems.
The unforgettable film – ‘The Sound of Music’, is what first comes to mind whenever I hear the word “Edelweiss”, and I’ve had a mad crush on Julie Andrews from the day I first saw it. And I’m tickled to have ‘cracked you up’ , my friend, that was the idea 🙂 Take care –
Your personification of each poem gives new insight to the meaning of flowers; their story and where they fit into life. I especially love the line in Edelweiss:
” I’m a master at surviving any blow” ; so delicate yet so mighty.
Thank you so much, Paulette! “Delicate yet so mighty” is itself beautiful phrasing. Alas, to be a master of survival is a skill worth developing in this day and age.
These flower power poems are overwhelming in their masterful elegance. Greatness is a term that I have often used for your poetry, but the term hardly does justice for your world class poems with majestic rhythm, rhyme, and creatively formulated textures that bedazzle and entrance. I guess “brilliantly conceived” is as close as I can come to how they affected me.
Thank you so much, Roy! The three poems were indeed conceived together so I’m pleased that you feel my judgment in doing so was valid. Flowers are not my forte so I especially appreciate your generosity and kind words!
Brian, if the orchid had a modicum of sense, it would ask you to marry it.
You made laugh, Michael, and that’s not easy these days! Thank you for that! Yes, it’s true that this jungle dance does get a bit spicy. But what happens in the jungle stays in the jungle. I’m not a bigamist.
I have a soft spot for floral subjects, and these are all finely crafted as well as intriguing and engaging. “Orchid Lover” is my favorite; your language is lush and erotic, perfect for the light in which you portray your subject. “Edelweiss” is intriguing, too, inverting the sentimentality of the song we commonly associate with the flower and showing it as it truly is, a symbol of the hardiness of the Alpine people. Your use the humble flower as a call to arms. “La Vie en Rose” is endearingly clever, especially in its panoply of floral end-rhymes. I cannot help but notice how the first two poems tie their floral imagery with musical subjects — an interesting association.
Thank you very much, Adam! I have very much enjoyed your own flower poems through the years. You’re very perceptive to have noticed the musical connection in the first two poems. And, of course, La Vie en Rose begins with a mention of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” Originally, my conception was to address flowers and music in all three poems, but “Orchid Lover” just sort of took off with a life of its own — more visual than the others by far. It took its inspiration from a narrative rather than from a song. So I decided to abandon the musical theme for the trio other than as a footnote.
Songs about flowers or referencing flowers seems to be a very old tradition spanning all musical genres. I can think of the Flower Duet by Delibes (opera), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (country-western), Where Have All the Flowers Gone (folk), Everything’s Coming Up Roses (Broadway)… And I’m sure it must go all the way back. I can imagine such songs being sung by troubadors or in the Renaissance. Flowers must trigger something in both poets and composers.
Wow Brian! I loved the sensuality and eroticism of “Orchid Lover”– I am trying not to over-analyze it too much, just enjoy its evocative imagery. I’d love to see more poetry like this out there, unapologetically erotic without being vulgar in any way. Love it!!
Thank you very much indeed, Theresa! That “wow” made my day! I’m so glad you liked “Orchid Lover.” I did indeed want to write something erotic but not terribly blue. The scents and sounds and touch of the jungle seemed the perfect vehicle and the setting made this great fun to write. Thank you for not overanalyzing, but do allow me to just mention something about the writing of this poem: somehow the sunburnt, sweaty trek through a savage jungle just didn’t feel like the time for rhyme. Blank verse freed me to focus more on language and imagery than on structure. Sometimes the subject chooses the form.
Thank you again, Theresa. Your reaction really pleased me!
Well done.
Thank you very much, Elena!
Brian, what a glorious gift of floral wonder served up in a trio of poetic delights. I love them all – equally!
“La Vie en Rose” is a mellifluous linguistic marvel that begs to be set to music. The top-notch, highly amusing rhymes, the toe-tapping rhythm, and the poetic devices used to maximum effect have taken my breath away. Bravo!
And what a change of mood when it comes to the poetic depiction of the “Edelweiss” expressed powerfully in the first-person persona. I should never have relied upon the Sound-of-Music interpretation of this feisty little flower with its tough-as-nails, grown-from-spit-and-fire attitude. Simply perfect!
And then we have the exquisitely sexy final poem, “Orchid Lover” which captures in magical and sensual words the allure of this intoxicating bloom. I’m especially impressed with the scene-setting of the opening lines – that magnificent jaguar reminding the reader how dangerous the pursuit of the orchid’s wonders are… so seductive a fang and claw is no deterrent. You describe the orchid’s habitat beautifully.. WOW! Your luscious words will make every fading flower glow as Autumn approaches, and for that I thank you!
Excellent stuff!!
Susan, I’m thrilled that you enjoyed these poems! I must confess that La Vie en Rose was a poem in which I took some inspiration from a personal favorite poet of mine, one Susan Jarvis Bryant, who guided me as muse through a floral field of chewy language, assonance and alliteration. I figured that the extensive use of such poetic devices would help convey the immense variety of colors, textures and scents that exist in the floral world. More than that, they would help make the poem FUN.
Oscar Hammerstein’s vision of the little Edelweiss flower was a bit saccharine for my taste, although this may have been due to the fact that he was dying at the time he wrote the Sound of Music lyrics (“Edelweiss” turned out to be his last song.) The music by Richard Rodgers makes the song seem much better than the bare lyric would suggest.
I’m especially thrilled that you enjoyed “Orchid Lover.” I had great fun writing this piece and exploring the jungle in my imagination. And I’ve always found orchids to be an exquisite flower. I’m learning that it’s possible to write suggestive pieces without getting overly explicit. Sometimes less is more.
Thank you again for your kind words, Susan! Your generosity, support and your own excellent work always inspire me.
Brian, I read “La Vie en Rose`” so happily-dappily. To me it felt frothily sublime; bubbling with facts and entertaining simultaneously. While it’s true that the Venus Fly Trap is the looniest, Audrey II might have given Venus a run-for-her-money. Thank you for reminding me to dwell on one of my favorite blooms, the lilac. Sense and scents–well done!
As cloying as “Edelweiss” has struck me as a song, thank you for your poetic description of this flower’s amazing tenacity and endurance, giving me another angle by which to reimagine and appreciate the tune and lyrics. Twenty-plus years ago, while hiking in the Yankee Boy Basin on Mt. Sneffles in CO., my husband and I saw bunches of edelweiss at elevation. I only wish I’d had your edifying poem to reflect on back then. Quel surprise!
Ah, “Orchid Love”. With apologies (and thanks) to you, Harry and Sally, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Thank you very much, Laura! I love your reactions to La Vie en Rose and Edelweiss. But it is your reaction to Orchid Lover that made me laugh out loud. Who can forget that infamous diner scene between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally”? “I’ll have what she’s having” indeed!