Ellen Bass
Roses
Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants
It's no wonder that poets have always written about roses. In fact, many years ago, I wrote about them so much that my mentor, Dorianne Laux, forbade me from putting a rose in my poems for a year! But now I've returned to them, albeit in moderation. To me there is something extremely luxurious about going into the garden, cutting flowers, and bringing them inside. As this poem relates, my wife brought me these roses after the worst of a long illness and to me they did, indeed, signify our fortune.
Ellen Bass’s most recent book is Indigo (Copper Canyon, 2020). Among her awards are Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, Lambda Literary Award, and four Pushcart Prizes. With Florence Howe, she co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, No More Masks! (Doubleday, 1973), and she co-authored the groundbreaking, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. A Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets, Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz jails. She teaches in Pacific University’s MFA program and offers online Living Room Craft Talks at ellenbass.com.