~ Ode to the Lowly
Wildflower
Oh wildflower, lowly wildflower, overlooked then gone
How understated and humble… tussled hither and yon
Attracting butterflies, insects and bees, half the summer long
Hark,
Black-eyed Susan, buzzing with brightly-petalled song
Golden patches, thick and bright along wooded trails,
The
Oxeye Sunflower endures until the season pales
From July to September, standing tall from thicket and field
Is the pretty
Blue Vervain, pencil-straight with spare blossom yield
For the long summer and fall, spread abundant in swamps and meadows damp
Purplish clusters of Spotted
Joe-Pye Weed , marked leaves are your stamp
In dense wooded wetlands, your tall leafy blooms burst to October from July
Your vivid orange bell-shaped Spotted-Touch-Me-Not petals catch our eye
Delicate rayless flower heads, in low, wet woodlands shown
Many a medicinal use for which your white Boneset blossoms are known
Showy abundant sweeps on the landscape, with broad blossomed face
From late summer, stands the ornate white stitch work of
Queen Anne’s Lace
In soft lavender bouquet, along open woods, fields and ditches
Is the mid-summer
Spotted Knapweed, often displayed in sunny niches
Casting off a beautiful summer-long fragrance, succulent nutrition to field life abound
Oh Slender
Bush Clover, among tall grasses your vibrant purple clusters are found
Spare and elongated are your blossoms, on shrubs low and high
Lambs quarters, your succulent tine flowers draw the bee, bird and butterfly
Brilliant orange-colored blossoms at roadsides ditches, summer through September
The Butterfly Weed flourishes, the grateful bee and butterfly not to put asunder
Throughout the sun-drenched months of warm languishing hours
The White Campion drifts in open field breezes, among grasses and flowers
Towering over top the grasses, sweet-pea-esque flowers pink and lavender
Shows the vertical-stemmed
Cow Vetch in its soft-spoken grandeur
With your domed striped cap, tucked in a cozy fit,
Sometimes hidden are you, oh regal
Jack in the Pulpit
Delicate-blossomed, hard to spot, pops with a buttery yellow
Gentle, yet named
Rough-fruited Cinquefoil, beaming its bright ‘hello’
Dandy like a lion, prominently displayed in warm, sun-filled pastures
The Two-flowered
Cynthia is not actually a ‘Dandy-Lion’, it assures
Strung in a neat stem line at spring, perfect-and-pretty sewn stitches
Among the hillside bramble, are the elusive
Dutchmen’s Britches
Triple petalled, Large-floweredTrillium, a wooded wonderland spray
Generously carpet the forest floor, brilliant glory of May
White, pink & purple…
Dame’s Rocket is a multi-color spring-to-summer bouquet
Bursting along roadsides, open woods…. particularly fragrant at the end of the day
Useful to us and nature on the wing, from your center to bright drooping rays
In the woods or in the garden …
Purple Coneflower, many are your blooming days
Lemon-yellow, willowy wisps of flags, fluttering in the warm meadows’ breeze
Prairie Coneflower, albeit a domed top standing at attention, you are at ease
Autumn’s boldness slowly fades, a harbinger of seasons’ turning
Hibernating memory holds spring’s wild beauty, in the heart ever-yearning.
~
Kathy Nyeggen
0:00 - Black-eyed Susan
0:22 - Oxeye Sunflower
1:00 - Blue Vervain
1:07 - Spotted Joe-Pye Weed
1:10 - Spotted-Touch-Me-Not
1:17 - Boneset
1:29 - Queen Anne’s Lace
1:36 - Spotted Knapweed
1:51 - Slender Bush Clover
1:55 -
Lambs Quarters
2:05 -
Butterfly Weed
2:23 -
White Campion
2:25 - Cow Vetch
2:39 - Jack in the Pulpit
2:53 - Rough-fruited Cinquefoil
2:57 - Two-flowered Cynthia
3:02 - Dutchmen’s Britches
3:09 - Large-floweredTrillium
3:14 - Dame’s Rocket
3:23 - Purple Coneflower
3:31 - Prairie Coneflower
Video shot and produced by
Kyle Fosburgh and Kathy Nyeggen with contribution from Ben Blegen
Music by Kyle Fosburgh :
"
Wildwood Flower"
"
Bury Me Beneath The
Willow"
"
The Fountain of Youth"
Video copyright Kathy Nyeggen 2016
- published: 28 Feb 2016
- views: 55