Tag: daffodils

Two Giveaway Winners

Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week we are hosted by Marcie Flinchum Atkins Here. Thank you, Marcie, for hosting.

First, there are two winners of Valarie Short’s picture book THE SOUNDS OF FREEDOM COMING!

CAROL VARSALONA and PATRICIA FRANZ

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!

It’s not my book, but it’s still fun to give things away.

(Carol, please send your address to me at Janice.scully@gmail.com)

What a crazy time we live in! I’ve been busy editing my novel in verse entitled WHEN MY BROTHER WENT TO WAR. It’s a fictionalized version of the year my brother went to Vietnam through the eyes of his fourteen year old sister reading his letters and hearing his stories. I’ve posted about this I believe, so I hope I’m not sounding repetitive. I am enthusiastic, though. I really like how it’s taking shape.

A year ago I rather gave up on it as it seems that a Vietnam War story was no longer relevant.

Ancient history.

No one would be interested.

I lost faith in my ability to get this story into the world.

But possibilities seem to be changing as we are perhaps about to relive that era, granted, through a bazaar surrealism lens, a blending of fantasy and reality.

So, I’m plugging along and have been encouraged by the responses of several reliable readers I’ve shared it with. Over time the ending has become stronger, more nuanced. If anyone knows of agents and editors looking to publish or represent verse novels and might be interested in a war story, let me know.

Meanwhile:

My daffodils are getting taller, just short of blooming.

DAFFODIL LAST WEEK IN MARCH

Blue green leaves
cradle a hidden yellow 
ruffled promise.

© Janice Scully 2026

I’m a bit emotional, what with the actual clinical-level insanity going on in our country (behavior certainly described in any psychiatry text), the heartbreak of families losing soldiers and the visions I see in my head of the personal loss of so many overseas. I also just listened to a podcast about the extreme misogyny in right wing circles, the flat out hatred towards women.

This is not normal.

However, we still have daffodils and adorable grandchildren. My grandson Tommy is walking. A little like Frankenstein but he’s not even a year and a half!

Thank you, Marcie, for hosting.

First Things

It’s Poetry Friday and I hope everyone is well. Thank you Heidi Mordhorst for hosting. I found her list of “Quarantine Questions”from last week’s Poetry Friday a useful way to approach each day. So thank you, Heidi, for that.

“What am I grateful for today?” is the first question on Heidi’s list of Quarantine questions. Today, that answer was easy. I’m grateful that my family is well.

Two days ago, my son, Phil, who lives in Manhattan, called to say he developed a fever, some chest congestion. He rarely gets sick. My husband and I stayed calm but were horrified, imagining he’d get sicker, even though our son is young and healthy. But, of course, that’s no guarantee. Hearing my son had such symptoms was the first time I felt this pandemic in such a scary way.

Fortunately, the following day, which was April first, and coincidentally Phil’s birthday, he felt better and the next day better still. I have to assume he had a mild case of Covid 19; it’s not easy to find out for sure. But it seems he’ll be fine.

I attended to the other things further down on Heidi’s Quarantine Questions list such as exercising, keeping in touch with friends, and trying to create something in spite of the distractions. I made broccoli soup and planned an apple cake for later.

Then, along my driveway, I encountered another first. My first daffodil was in early bloom and it inspired this short poem.

THE FIRST DAFFODIL

Ten others will come,
buttery yellow,
faces krinkled and new,
gregarious fellows.

But one arrived early,
for the week or two stay,
and saved me from waiting
one more lonely day.

© Janice Scully 2020

Thank you for stopping by! Make sure you stop and see what Heidi has in store this Poetry Friday.

Daffodils

Happy Poetry Friday! It’s helpful to the spirit to share poems at a time like this.

Michele Kogan is our host today so stop by her website. You will find not only wonderful spring poetry from the recent issue of Michele Heinrich Barnes’ Today’s Little Ditty, but also Michele Kogan’s paintings full of flowers that are sure to take the sting out of current times.

I love daffodils. Many do, of course. In the early 19th century, William Wordsworth took a walk with his sister in England’s Lake District. There, he was inspired by Wild Daffodils to write one of the most well known poems about this stunning yellow flower ever written in the English language. 

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
by William Wordsworth


I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

                (Read entire poem here)

But even though I love daffodils, I found that I actually didn’t know any facts about them. The scientific name for the wild daffodil is Narcissus Pseudonarcissus. I grows from a bulb but I was unaware that the flower made seeds that can produce a flowering plant within a decade.

Narcissus Pseudonarcissus or Wild Daffodil

I also didn’t know that the bulb and leaves happen to be poisonous. They contain the alkaloid lycorine which causes nausea and GI distress. According to a BBC report a class of 30 primary school children learned this first hand while they made vegetable soup as a class project. Because a daffodil bulb was mistaken for an onion, 12 kids were sent to the hospital. But the story ended happily. None were seriously ill.

The freedom I feel walking outside is irresistable, especially now. Today I spied daffodils breaking the soil.

Daffodils are ubiquitous here in Upstate New York. That’s because deer do not eat them (because their poisonous?) and with so many deer sharing our space, most gardeners plant flowers that won’t tempt them.

It takes some chutzpah, I think, to break through the soil not knowing what waits on the other side. Today it was clear skies for these dependable, brave, yearly visitors to our world. 

Though blind, green shoots crack
muddy soil--What's ahead
courageous flower?

I hope everyone can get outside in a safe place and enjoy the weekend. Thank you Michelle Kogan for hosting!