On Occasion
by Grace Paley
I forget the names of my friends
and the names of the flowers in
my garden___ my friends remind me
Grace___it's us___the flowers just
stand there stunned by the sun
A long time ago my mother said
darling___there are also wildflowers
but look___these I planted
My flowers are pink and rose and
orange___they're sturdy___they make
new petals every day to fill in
their fat round faces
suddenly before I thought I
called out ZINNIA___zinnia
zinnia___along came a sunny
___summer breeze___they swayed
___lightly bowed___I said___Mother
Grace Paley (American, 1922-2007) was best known for her innovative short stories and political activism. "On Occasion" appeared in Fidelity, published posthumously.
The underscores do not appear in the original poem but are necessary within the limitations of the blog formatting to show the spacing between phrases in the original.
by Grace Paley
I forget the names of my friends
and the names of the flowers in
my garden___ my friends remind me
Grace___it's us___the flowers just
stand there stunned by the sun
A long time ago my mother said
darling___there are also wildflowers
but look___these I planted
My flowers are pink and rose and
orange___they're sturdy___they make
new petals every day to fill in
their fat round faces
suddenly before I thought I
called out ZINNIA___zinnia
zinnia___along came a sunny
___summer breeze___they swayed
___lightly bowed___I said___Mother
Grace Paley (American, 1922-2007) was best known for her innovative short stories and political activism. "On Occasion" appeared in Fidelity, published posthumously.
The underscores do not appear in the original poem but are necessary within the limitations of the blog formatting to show the spacing between phrases in the original.
