Poem: "A Touch of Comfort"
Jan. 22nd, 2013 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is the freebie for today's bonus fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from cadenzamuse. It belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman. This is a sequel to "Pearls and Posies," and will make more sense if you've read that first.
Twice a week, Abelie came into the village:
once to study with Sofia, the old deaf woman
who was teaching hand-talk, and once
to study herbs with Fiorenza while
Abelie's sister Margherita worked with Don Candido.
It was hard on the girls
to have lost their voices so young,
fey blessing gone awry so that
Abelie spoke only in flowers
while Margherita murmured in jewels.
There was nothing to be done for it,
only learn to work around it,
and so Fiorenza set aside time
every week to help Abelie learn the herbs
and their uses and their meanings.
"Rosemary: tonic and astringent,"
Fiorenza said. "It means remembrance."
"Lavender: purification and relaxation.
It means devotion." She pointed out
the different beds with their subtly different plants.
"This is Italian lavender; this is Spanish lavender."
Abelie pointed to another bed of soft silvery leaves
and spoke a sphere of scarlet sycamore blossoms,
symbol of curiosity, as she looked to Fiorenza.
The wisewoman smiled at her. "This is lamb's ear,"
Fiorenza explained. "It speaks of support.
It has no medicinal applications, though.
I grow it because it's pretty and fuzzy.
Not everything needs to have a practical use."
She stroked one finger along a velvety leaf.
"Sometimes people just need a touch of comfort."
Abelie replied with a straw flower for agreement,
then pointed to the basket slung over her elbow.
"Go ahead and dig one up," Fiorenza said.
So Abelie carefully transplanted a lamb's ear
into the little corner garden outlined in bricks that
the wisewoman had given her to tend on her own.
It went between the chamomile (energy in adversity)
and the verbena (you have my confidence)
as a silent reminder that not everything
had to be useful and nobody had to be perfect.
cadenzamuse. It belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman. This is a sequel to "Pearls and Posies," and will make more sense if you've read that first."A Touch of Comfort"
Twice a week, Abelie came into the village:
once to study with Sofia, the old deaf woman
who was teaching hand-talk, and once
to study herbs with Fiorenza while
Abelie's sister Margherita worked with Don Candido.
It was hard on the girls
to have lost their voices so young,
fey blessing gone awry so that
Abelie spoke only in flowers
while Margherita murmured in jewels.
There was nothing to be done for it,
only learn to work around it,
and so Fiorenza set aside time
every week to help Abelie learn the herbs
and their uses and their meanings.
"Rosemary: tonic and astringent,"
Fiorenza said. "It means remembrance."
"Lavender: purification and relaxation.
It means devotion." She pointed out
the different beds with their subtly different plants.
"This is Italian lavender; this is Spanish lavender."
Abelie pointed to another bed of soft silvery leaves
and spoke a sphere of scarlet sycamore blossoms,
symbol of curiosity, as she looked to Fiorenza.
The wisewoman smiled at her. "This is lamb's ear,"
Fiorenza explained. "It speaks of support.
It has no medicinal applications, though.
I grow it because it's pretty and fuzzy.
Not everything needs to have a practical use."
She stroked one finger along a velvety leaf.
"Sometimes people just need a touch of comfort."
Abelie replied with a straw flower for agreement,
then pointed to the basket slung over her elbow.
"Go ahead and dig one up," Fiorenza said.
So Abelie carefully transplanted a lamb's ear
into the little corner garden outlined in bricks that
the wisewoman had given her to tend on her own.
It went between the chamomile (energy in adversity)
and the verbena (you have my confidence)
as a silent reminder that not everything
had to be useful and nobody had to be perfect.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-22 07:55 pm (UTC)had to be useful and nobody had to be perfect.
MY FEELS ;w;
I love the message. Ahh~
Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-22 07:57 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-22 08:39 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-01-23 02:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-22 10:45 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2013-01-22 10:53 pm (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2013-01-22 11:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-23 01:24 am (UTC)Aren't Abelie's highly-organized creations breaking the laws of thermodynamics?
I somehow suspect that I'm missing the point.
Well...
Date: 2013-01-23 02:01 am (UTC)Regarding Margherita, they are taking care to spread the wealth around, rather than what usually happens with this motif (i.e. a king locks the princess in a tower and hoards all the jewels for himself). So she probably doesn't have more impact than a mine would.
Regarding Abelie, entropy is balanced by an equal and opposite force, syntropy, which governs the creation of order through such processes as crystalization and life. If it weren't for that opposing force, everything would move only toward chaos and nothing would be capable of becoming orderly. The energy comes partly from the ambient power in the world, and partly from Abelie herself -- which is why she lost her voice, the spell being miscast.
Fairy tales do a lot of quirky things. In this series, some of those quirky things still happen, but I look at the layer just underneath to turn them in different directions.
Re: Well...
Date: 2013-01-23 03:41 am (UTC)Maybe I should start reading this series after all.
Re: Well...
Date: 2013-01-23 07:13 am (UTC)113 lines, Buy It Now = $56.50
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-23 03:51 pm (UTC)Yes...
Date: 2013-01-23 10:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-01 02:49 am (UTC)No ...
Date: 2013-02-01 02:51 am (UTC)Re: No ...
Date: 2013-02-01 03:01 am (UTC)