Bloom

“Bloom” by Anna Voelker

I want to tell you
about the sunflower I found
on the sidewalk yesterday.
It is wilting and curled and gorgeous
and knows it.

I want to age like that,
never forgetting my own beauty,
never forgetting how to say bloom.

Analysis:

“Bloom” by Anna Voelker is a short sweet poem with no rhyme scheme. The theme of this poem is how nature can inspire us. It talks about a ‘gorgeous’ ‘wilting’ ‘sunflower’. We love flowers for their beauty even though it doesn’t last long. We are still amazed when we see these flowers wilting because we know the beauty they once have had. Anna uses a metaphor to state that we should think of our own beauty as we do flowers: not to worry about the changing but to embrace yourself at your greatest moment and not to forget it.

Anna Voelker describes the sunflower as “wilting and curled and gorgeous/and knows it” she implies that even though the flower is dying it still thinks that it is ‘gorgeous’. She proceeds to state, “I want to age like that/never forgetting my own beauty/never forgetting how to say bloom”.  Even though naturally we grow old we shouldn’t let that distract us from the life we have. We shouldn’t be overly concerned with imperfections as to miss out on life. She personifies the sunflower because it thinks it’s “gorgeous and knows it”. She then compared the confidence she gave to the flower to that of which she should have in herself.

Source:
https://minniejournal.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/8-inspirational-poems-that-will-warm-your-heart-from-readers-digest/