A rose,
They say,
By any other name
Would smell as sweet…
But what,
I wonder,
Would they say
About sensory overload?
Rose intoxication –
Death by rose –
Rehab for recovering rose addicts?
And yet it is not solely
Fragrance,
The sultry aroma,
That beguiles the senses –
But (for the rose
Is no shrinking violet)
The confident colours
Of the blooms,
Their silken petals
Unfurling,
Drawing us closer,
Demanding the soft caress
Of a lover’s touch.
Such beauty,
Such floral perfection,
Pierces the heart
And brings us one step closer
To (a rose-filled) Heaven.
Please visit Carol’s blog at May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in the middle of June in other people’s gardens – apart from roses!
Rambling in the Garden 
Beautiful photo and words too! I hope you have time to be outside enjoying all the fragrance this week Cathy!
Thanks so much – and I do linger longer on my rambles, so that’s a start! This is the first year I have really noticed the depth of the fragrance, Cathy, and not just from these ones in the rose garden. It really is intoxicating, hence the poem
What a great poem! I love your way with words and keep on saying it. It’s probably getting old for you I guess. But this poem has a little of Rilke in it, so it really touches me. Also being a rose lover….Thank you so much.
You are very welcome – but I had to look up Rilke as I have not come across him before. I suppose we all develop our own style of writing, be it prose or poetry, and I am delighted that you enjoy mine, Susan.
Beautiful roses and beautiful words to go with them, made even better by beautiful perfume.
Thanks Pauline – and the perfume of the roses really has been beautiful this year.
”Such floral perfection”, beautiful! I also have a post on roses starting from the quote ”I don’t know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.”
Thanks Anca – and I will pop over and have a look at your rose post
Perfect ode to a rose…I do love their smell…especially tea roses!
This is the first year I have really noticed a difference in the fragrances – definitely some fruity ones amongst the sweeter smells
What a marvelous poem to celebrate Bloom Day! Roses, of which I regrettably have few, are the very epitome of summer’s best blooms.
Thanks Kris – I have really come to appreciate roses in the last few years. Sorry you only have few 😦
Perfect words Cathy to describe the rose and the rose lover.
Thanks Brian – they are making such a statement at the moment it would have been a shame not to focus on them for GBBD
*sigh* Just lovely. I don’t want my whole garden to be roses (after all, I love many other flowers too), but I end up planting one or two in every flowerbed. Happy Bloom Day!
Thanks Linnae – I know what you mean and I keep adding more now, mostly climbing roses or in pots
Wow! They look wonderful! That’s quite a sight! I do struggle with roses, I’m afraid, but I keep persevering. So, I can identify with the words of your lovely poem. My new header shows my rose success – not a patch on yours!
I wonder why they are difficult for you, Ali – perhaps you could talk to them nicely and ask them to pull their socks up…?
Spoken like a teacher! 😉
indeed…teaching special needs children about idioms was always a memorable experience 🙂
They look lovely. I am coming to roses late, my parents had a front garden full of the and i had the job of weeding it, a bit like a human sacrifice to the thorn god.. That put me off them for a while but I am now beginning to see their beauty and am gradually filling my own garden with them.
Thanks Gary, and I came late as well – but not from the sacrifice to the thorn god angle but because I didn’t like bare stems in the middle of a flowerbed, which is what roses used to be a few decades ago – then I discovered climbing roses, and roses in pots, and now I know how glorious they can be.
Lovely roses and lovely words. And aren’ t the roses fabulous this year?
Thanks Chloris – and I still find this fabulousness hard to take in as it is almost overwhelming this year…
Now how can I still maintain that I am not a “rose person”?
I don’t know rickii – how can you still maintain that you are not a “rose person”?!