Poetry Friday: Zinnias

I think my favorite poem of all times is this one by Valerie Worth. I love to garden, and zinnias are one of my most-loved flowers though they are difficult to grow in Houston. (They don’t like wet feet and that’s hard to avoid in such a humid climate.) My dad and my grandmother both were strong and hardy folks and grew the most beautiful zinnias.

Zinnias
by Valerie Worth

Zinnias, stout and stiff,
Stand no nonsense: their colors
Stare, their leaves
Grow straight out, their petals
Jut like clipped cardboard,
Round, in neat flat rings.

Even cut and bunched
|Arranged to please us
In the house, in the water, they
Will hardly wilt– I know
Someone like zinnias: I wish
I were like zinnias.