An array of glowing white petals
and a bouquet, in itself, of vibrantly yellow stamen.
Bloodroot, as its name implies,
leaks its deep red sap when its root is broken.
The Algonquin men painted their foreheads
in the scarlet sap when courting,
because to them, the plant represented love.
Bloodroot was also used by the Algonquin
as a poison
When the first man that I loved
decided that my flesh was enough
to absolve him of his sins,
it meant that I had to go to the hospital
to have blood drawn from my body.
At some point in the 1970’s,
love, for people like me,
embodied itself as a poison in our veins.
It tore down our defenses
and killed us from the inside out.
Never before had the word “negative”
signified my own feeling of safety, but
never again would love be
an array of glowing white petals
and a bouquet, in itself, of vibrantly yellow stamen.
Jeremy Collings
Finalist, Distinguished Voices in Literature Poetry Prize
In “Sanguinaria Candensis: Bloodroot,” the poet deftly uses image to underscore the emotional stakes in each move. The poem opens with a description of a bouquet, but then moves seamlessly into history, and then, personal history. The telescoping into personal history is particularly moving.
–Christine Kitano, Contest Judge, author of Sky Country and Birds of Paradise
Jeremy Collings
: “Writing poetry helps me process events in my life and pay homage to my own experiences. I am most inspired by the natural world, and plant sciences are typically at the forefront of my poetry. There is a versatility in the use of flowers in poetry that I am completely enamored with.”