YELLOW BELLS
(of Peñaranda
Park*,
in the ‘60s; nowhere today)
Melchor L. Aguilar
yellow bells
casting mellow spells
when abloom
they cast away gloom
by the sight
of them my heart swells
by scent of
them my spirits boom.
arched
blossoms of bright golden shade
their buds in
lush, their blooms a-plush
in glade and
glen they gleam, not fade
in dale and
dell they dwell a-flush.
on bushes
green they grin akin
to mermaids’
lips of tulips pale
on sepals lean
they mean to sheen
like fairy’s
hair in fairy tale.
yellow bells
casting mellow spells
their magic
charm in warm endear
in silence hence,
the chime of bells
i hear so near
in dearly cheer.
What a lovely spirit-lifting poem i chanced upon. Truly, the Yellow Bell or Allamanda casts away gloom. I am so grateful that we have this persistent woody shrub by our gate -- well, our immediate neighbor's side of the gate.
Even though hardly any tending is paid to it -- it continues to thrive, as if to mock the sun. Very undemanding. Or rather, it channels the sun's glow, giving us something of itself we can behold up close without the glare and the burn.
Its sister in our backyard, on the other hand, remains flowerless, rendered barren by the lack of exposure to the sun.
