Some years ago some very lucky Abbotsford BC fields were transformed for a few weeks in April by tulips. The Abbotsford Tulip Festival went on for a few years, history now I’m afraid, due to the pandemic and the devastating November 2021 floods in the Fraser Valley. But I have memories and a poem composed in 2016 after a visit to the tulips with my sister.
Tulip Festival
A few tulips are beautiful
acres of them stunning—
bouclé strips of colour
in the palette of Spring:
red, peach, yellow, pink
orange, variegated, white, wine,
varieties named for memories
and with imagination: Rhapsody, Lolyta
Christmas Gift, Graya, Kelly, Charade.
They are April wine,
goblets capturing light
suffused with light
petals luminous in morning sun.
No competition here, each variety
from giant orange decanters
to delicate pink thimbles
spreads its own elegant flight.
We bow homage, lean in
kneel, prostrate ourselves
with cameras of every size,
wander into rows and selfie-stick-snap
smiles and natty hats
among the rainbow blooms.
On the highway, cars and trucks
thunder by this colourful miracle
while we wander down the sawdust path
towards the parking lot
hands full of U-Pick life
and a whole memory card of pixels
to brighten next January.
© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved).
“… hands full of U-pick life…” (Photo © V.Nesdoly)
Violet Nesdoly 