Prose In Art Form Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

Prose in art form
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
I looked at an Ikebana book in the Runnymede Public Library and was inspired. Apparently, PM Justin Trudeau caught me doing so and assigned me the task of making these flower arrangements. It became a fun task. And I bask in the result, mpst of which you will see if the powers that be decree. But you have seen two.
I look back and am reminded of my mother, Chaya Seetharam, who had taken an Ikebana class in Bangalore and this dates back to when I was in the 3rd and 4th grade. She placed 2nd in a Lalbagh Flower show contest and had 5 different flower arrangements.
Soon after my father died in a horrible accident when I was in the 6th grade. We had a flower arrangement contest in my school. My mother taught me to arrange 3 roses with 3 wavy sticks painted black. She called the flower arrangement, Talking Flowers, and insisted that it had to have a fully bloomed flower, a half bloomed flower and a flower bud (all of which came from a neighbour and sister's friend's garden) . I thought that it could represent the different stages of life, childhood, youth and middle age and lastly, old age. I placed first or second, I simply don't remember.
Of the 7 books included in the essay, The romance of the written word published in The Globe and Mail on May 27th,2016, I have read 4 books and will suggest flowers to describe the personalities of the heroines.
For Elizabeth Bennett, it is the rose which blooms in sunny weather and has the scent of a woman who is well read.
For Tess of the d'Urbervilles, it is the tulip which blooms only in spring and alas! She died young. She was hardworking and had, with the country maiden air and accent, the freshness of spring.
For the heroine of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, it is the sensible flower for she is his nurse. It is the iris.
For the heroine of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the time of cholera (incidentally, this book was lent to me by a male friend when I was doing my M.Eng thesis, Amir Nativ, who also snuck in a small box of candies in my backpack; he had an engaging personality and had served in the Israeli army.)who was really young when the hero develops a lasting passion for her and has beautiful black hair, it is the flower that pouts. The Kannada flower, Kennasampige, a golden yellow elongated flower that droops and has a lovely scent. I beg your pardon for I do not know its English name or Latin name. Surely, it is sacrilege to liken a Spanish heroine to a Kannada flower but in my defence, the heroine has flashing black eyes.