"people as flowers"

such singing's going on in the

streets---

the people look like flowers

at last

- Bukowski, excerpted from "people as flowers"

by Cecelia Webber, part of her "Human Flowers" project

Chimonanthus Praecox

Photo by Jim Mays on Flickr.

This waxy flowering mound is also known as "winter-sweet" due to its striking aroma throughout the cold winter months. Ketzel Levine describes it as "neither cloying nor overpowering, but lemonlike and spicy" and suggests it for indoor aromatic use. It only blooms in the Spring and seems highly unremarkable in its dormant state, although one must always remark upon encountering its 

Winter, Finally?

None of the trees boast stubborn, dead leaves any longer. They're all bare. Save for an accumulation of snow on the sidewalks it's begun to feel like winter at last. My afternoon run felt more like a chore than anything else, me in my three or four layers and high socks, looking all frigid and stiff as I traversed the tiny roads of Carroll Gardens (though I was not the only one, which comforted me). And even though the temperature has settled into its seasonal lows very late this year the sun has been gone for what seems like months now, which has brought on a fit of longing for sunflowers unlike any I've ever experienced. I know I posted about them not too long ago, but I need them right now.

Mugwort

Even though winter is (supposed to be) upon us I often find little weed-sprouts squeezed between slabs of concrete or, more comically, residing in outdoor clay pots bereft of all "preferable" blooming plants. Artemisia vulgaris, better known as mugwort, seems inescapable. It populates street corners and trash-strewn empty lots and breaks up expansive grey spaces with greens and whites. The city hardly seems as harsh.