Every Flower
"Touched by Love and Set Free"
Photo by Jeanne Torrence Finley*
My botany professor made only two statements that I remember, but they are among the most important things I learned in college. One was the difference between a flower and a weed. A flower is a plant that’s growing where you want it and a weed is a plant that’s located where you don’t want it. Now that may not sound scientific, but I assure you that the N.C. Botanical Garden is not above making a similar statement on its website. If you value a flowering plant, it's a flower; if you don’t, it’s a weed. Take, for instance, dandelions. When my granddaughter was four or five years old, she loved finding dandelions in the grass. They were beautiful flowers, wonders to behold, and she picked bouquets of them and took pleasure in giving them to her grandfather and me. On the other hand, I know people who walk around their lawns with spray containers to kill dandelions one by one. To them—no doubt about it—a dandelion is a weed
The first verse of Noel’s “Every Flower” sounds as if it is simply about the difference between a flower and a weed. Under the right conditions (soil, water, sunshine) the seeds send out roots that dig down into the soil, and the plant grows, flowers start to bloom and the plant’s reproductive cycle begins anew. Some flowers grow even under poor conditions—depleted soil, too much or too little water, or obstacles above the soil (trees, cracked concrete or asphalt). But when they are noticed by humans, some are chosen and others are not. Some are valued. Others are weeds.
Every flower's reaching for the sun
Every petal opens when the day has just begun
Even in the city where they grow up through the street
Every blossom needs the sunshine to make its life complete.
Some are torn out by the roots and cast aside
And some might be arranged and brought inside
A flower's just a seed when it's young
And every flower's reaching for the sun.
Lest you think this poem is no more than a nursery rhyme, the last two lines of the first stanza hint that something more is going on. This restating of the obvious underlines that all flowers come from the same source—a seed. At this point, you may also be thinking that Noel’s knowledge of botany ended at the first-grade level, but that’s not true. When Noel and Betty bought a house in Blue Hill, Maine, it came with the only florist business, including greenhouses, serving the surrounding area. The place also came with the expectation that the Stookeys would continue to run the business. Betty, having worked in a florist shop when she was in high school, took on the challenge and ran the business. Noel helped when he could. He knows a thing or two about flowers and gardening, but he’s not writing this lyric as a gardener, but as a poet.
Poets use metaphors to compare one thing to another. They are multilayered and somewhat ambiguous, suggesting realities beyond the obvious. As Sallie McFague puts it, metaphor breaks through the one-dimensional jargon of technology, consumer culture, and politics. It is the vocation of poets to give us new metaphors that will express the deeper dimensions of life. The second important thing that I learned from my botany professor was that there are multiple ways of knowing, of which science is only one. Others include emotion, imagination, faith, intuition, experience, and language Poets not only observe—like scientists—but they rely other ways of knowing to create metaphors that express realities that can’t be easily said in other ways.
Back to the lyric . . .
Some are bent by fears they cannot see
And some are touched by Love and set free
A flower's just a seed when it's young
And every flower's reaching
Oh every flower's reaching
Every flower's reaching for the sun.
If we are not yet aware that this poem is about more that flowers, the first line of this verse gives the signal. It suggests persons who have wounds or depositions that may or may not be visible to themselves or others—wounds or dispositions rooted in fears that are invisible to themselves—fears of change, of the other, of the truth, of loss of a loved one, of losing power or acceptance, of failure, and the list goes on. (My sentence construction here is evidence that poets write or sing truths that are better expressed in poetry.)
On an individual level, here are some examples: a woman who has a secure job she hates but whose fear of change keeps her from searching for a new one; a teenager who wants to take ballet lessons but fears ridicule from his friends; persons raised in fundamentalist churches who question the beliefs they learned from adults they trust but fear voicing their doubts. On a national level here’s an example: a former president and convicted felon who is so afraid of being a loser that he denies losing one election and threatens retribution to politicians and journalists who oppose him in the next election.
The second line of the second verse of “Every Flower” proclaims an alternative—the possibility of transformation, of liberation from fears, of freedom. This freedom comes through being touched by Love. It could be mediated by love from other people, through being in nature and recognizing its sacredness, or by awareness of the presence of God surrounding us and in us. I also believe we can be touched by Love when we engage in creative or compassionate work that contributes the common good and the care of the earth. I’ll leave naming examples to you. “Every flower’s reaching for the sun.”
*Note from Jeanne: When I was making the video of “Every Flower” I looked for days in my neighborhood to find a flower that was growing up through the street. Finally, I was reduced to a shot of this dandelion in the brick landing for my front porch steps, and I thought, “Is this the best I can do?” When I saw that Noel chose this photo for the heading, I laughed out loud.
Connections
When I was a kid, videos like this one weren’t available to show how flowers grow.
Video by Miles Rose, Freelance Motion Graphics at MilesRose.net
Vibrations
Watch this video which I made as a meditation on Noel’s song: “Every Flower.”
Photos by Bill and Jeanne Finley; video slideshow by Jeanne Finley
Resonance
Who are the “flowers” cast aside? Who are the valued ones? What for you are examples of “flowers” who are “bent by fears they cannot see”? Who are the ones “touched by Love and set free”?
Here’s the captions for the first two lines — “We have flowers reaching for the sun.
Every pedal opens when the D has just begun.”
Closing lines - “Every flowers, reaching every flowers.
Region four, listen.”
I’m not sure you can do anything to address this issue. The auto-generated captions are sometimes on target, sometimes amusing, and sometimes disruptive. I thought you might want to be aware of it, if you weren’t already.
Thanks for the song and the slideshow. I enjoyed both.
The slideshow was beautiful. I enjoyed the flowers and the song.
However, the captions that went with the slideshow often did not fit. I don’t know if AI doesn’t understand the words and comes up with its own words, but the message becomes very garbled. I’ll see if I can find an example and share it after I send this.