Peonies and Thistles

The abundant spring rains helped the peonies bloom wondrously full this year. And then the storm of yesterday afternoon blew most of the petals hither and thither. Such a beautiful flower, so delicate, and so short lived. I trimmed the heads off the peonies this morning, wondering if it really helped the plant or if this was another cultural way of looking away from death.

Then wandering through the Poetry Foundation website I found a poem about thistles, Katagiri-roshi’s favorite flower.

So different from peonies, they bloom later in the season here, beginning of August, I believe. The flower, sharing the pink of some peonies, is protected by a hundred thorns and is resilient, sometimes lasting until the first frosts of September. It is listed as an “invasive species,” a weed, a pest.

I think Roshi liked the thistle because it grows in the untended and discarded places, the places ignored by most of us most of the time.

I remember a work leader at Hokyoji who assigned me to weed a five-acre field. “Pull out all the thistles by the roots,” was his instruction. Several days labor made no apparent impact. And then Roshi told us that it was his favorite flower. I was immediately assigned to other work and the altar-care attendant started offering thistles to the Buddha.

Roshi’s example has encouraged me to look in the overlooked to find beauty.

Here’s the poem:

Thistles
by Heidy Steidlmayer

stand as clocks fully struck