Insouciant

despite a high wind,
the star magnolia beams,
petals aflutter

Notes: I aim for insouciance (or at least nonchalance), like the star magnolia in a high wind, but, occasionally, I feel more like a cherry blossom petal after a heavy rain — flattened and soon to disappear. Lately, life has been worse than usual — flu and infection and neck pain, oh my! Still, I’ll be a star magnolia again one day. I hope you will be, too.

Here’s another poem about the star magnolia:

“Star Magnolia” (An Excerpt by Mary Owen Lewis, 1931)
Candid soul, unstained, fragrant, fine-grained.
Wide open to the sky, and unafraid,
On your lucid white shines purer light,
As if the sun himself to you had prayed.