Author: Janice

My name is Janice.  I started blogging as Ontheland when I moved from Toronto to a rural area near Kingston, Ontario in Canada.  Over time I have found myself writing poetry, mostly in Japanese forms, such as haiku and haibun.  One of my deepest interests is the natural world: the joy of it and how we can look after it better.

What’s in a name?

I notice the scalloped leaf edges, how each leaf attaches to the base of a flower stem. I see a royal lady’s collar and remember a name: ‘Lady’s Mantle’.

border plant

imagining a story

for her name

I later read that a ‘mantle’ is not a collar, but a sleeveless cloak. The name Lady’s Mantle was inspired by the leaves. It refers to their resemblance to a scalloped cloak shown in images of the Virgin Mary.

lady’s mantle

her royal collar holds

a cluster of stars

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