In my yard today the annual parade of colors is occurring - this is the sentence I wrote on Memorial Day weekend and then I was stopped by a phone call - the news was sad. A dear friends adult child had died. It was a day to honor the dead and to remember the dead and then unexpectedly a beloved person had died. Somehow writing in a blog about brave color and comparing flags of color to flags flying over the early summer skies seemed frivolous. But now days have passed and I've given much thought to the fragility of life. Those flower flags which were bravely making their appearance two weeks ago are now in their last throes of declining beauty. A year ago similar Iris were in my lawn but this year is a remarkable year, all around town people have talked about the beauty of the Iris here. So I will share the beauty of this years Iris with you and think about the passing beauty we have felt in the people we have known.
The Summer lapsed away-
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy-
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon-
The Dusk drew earlier in-
The morning foreign shone-
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
A Guest, that would be gone-
And thus, with a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful."
Emily Dickinson
posted June 8. 2011
http://www.sensationalcolor.com/liveinfullcolor/the-meaning-colors-of-memorial-day/
