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Sep 14
poem challenge: Flowers
Sawyer Fell

Golden iris

In honor of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Sawyer, who raised the best mother I could ever have.

This week during the steaming afternoon 
of a Delaware Wednesday in late May 
my mother told me she hated the in-

between of spring and summer. “Everything
is just green, there is nothing else,” but I 
tend to like the various shades of green;

some deeply saturated in the shade 
of maples, others pale and glistening 
in the sun's glance. I noticed a sole gold

iris standing stoic and proud to be
the last of her kind this season. Despite
such strength she possesses, she is always

positioned perfectly like a vintage 
painting you might find in a northeastern
continental mansion. She beckons the 

neighboring bees and insects to collect
their pollen, lapping up the light of the
sun like an overheated dog. She waves

her flowing petals in the slightest gust
of wind but does not fall subject to its
powers. I say to my mother, “at least

we have Gigi with us still,” she nods and
we share a few silent breaths before soon
bidding the old world outside our house an

early goodnight.
  • Sawyer Fell's blog
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Posted: 09.14.22
About the Author: Sawyer Fell
i have a vision of what i want to do but the picture is too blurry and i can never remember to clean my glasses.
MSG / CONTACT
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Discussion

Comments

  1. crisscross
    Sep 15, 2022

    This is so beautiful, the stanzas separating certain sentences are really interesting!

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  1. Sawyer Fell
    Sep 16, 2022

    thank you so much for your kind words!! :)

    i have a vision of what i want to do but the picture is too blurry and i can never remember to clean my glasses.

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  1. Yellow Sweater
    Sep 15, 2022

    I love how you start out with the setting straight off the bat. It makes me feel every other image, emotion, sentiment, thought in the poem so much more vividly. And goodness gracious what a wonderful phrase "during the steaming afternoon
    of a Delaware Wednesday in late May " is.

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  1. Sawyer Fell
    Sep 16, 2022

    thank you so much!! i always feel so much emotion when i am writing and try to convey everything so that others can feel the same. that is also one of my favorite lines :)

    i have a vision of what i want to do but the picture is too blurry and i can never remember to clean my glasses.

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  1. elise.writer
    Sep 15, 2022

    the dialogue makes it feel so real, and the figurative language and descriptions of the iris are just beautiful.

    Elise Cournoyer

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  1. Sawyer Fell
    Sep 16, 2022

    thank you! surprisingly this was actually a real interaction that i just remembered a few days ago. i wanted to capture every small thing i could remember and as i kept writing everything became much more vivid. i'm really glad you liked it :)

    i have a vision of what i want to do but the picture is too blurry and i can never remember to clean my glasses.

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YWP is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists. We're based in Burlington, VT, and we welcome young creators from anywhere!
Young Writers Project | 47 Maple St., Suite 216 | Burlington, VT 05401
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Contact: Susan Reid, Executive Director: [email protected]; (802) 324-9538