A Poem written in 2007

Louise Odier

For Jen

Traveling as the youngest really sucks,

And is lonely. Especially when I’m headed

To plant nurseries.  I hate those places.  Yet,

This time is different.  I’ve never been here.

There is a sense of antiquity in the air.  These

Roses feel like they are out of Hawthorne’s

Salem.  The lush green and the cloudy sky

Has given this place an ancient smell.  As

A child I’m thinking this is odd, interesting.

Maybe this place will be different.  So I

Sniff around, knowing my nose must be

Greater than all others as one of my senses

Is mostly lost.  I figure the others must all

Be greater to make up for that loss.  I

Smelled her then.  I looked and found her

Name was Louise Odier.  She is truly old.

Yet, she is so beautiful.  I am enamored.

This rose, this Louise, Miss Odier, she

Has seen so much, she communicates

To me by speaking with her scent.  I

Cannot help but drink in her story. 

Apparently she is from the East coast. 

She is a rare kind, and people will clip

Her stems, so she grows more thorns,

I felt them, and yet she perseveres

All the more.  She grows faster, becomes

More pungent. Wildness is in her, she

Is a rambler rose.  She befriended me

And took me under her soft petals

When I needed it most of all. And now,

I see her today years later.  It’s fall

And she is wilting.  I know though,

That she will revive, not only herself in

The spring, but me as well.  I will smell

Her again, and remember when she saved

Me from loneliness and comforted me

With her lovely story that I did not hear.

© T.S. Graveline

I wrote this poem years before I met the love of my life and it was after I did, that I knew this poem was about her.  I had known when I had written it that it was for my future wife.  I got lucky with her.  Maybe this poem helped.