Pictures in an Exhibition:

The mighty daffodil. It plays a role in two of my muses' mythologies.

Don't look so strangely at me, what were you expecting? A treatise on the history and technques behind the penetrating rose? That's coming later.

The daffodil appears several times in my poems about the original Panther. It came from a comment she made to me when our relationship was at a low point...she told me not to worry about the winter, spring was coming and with it, the daffodils. She would sometimes speak in these metaphoric manners (truth be told, I am not sure where her words ended and mine began, so I give her full credit for the entirety...) The daffodil became the symbol for hope.

It also is the flower that, for some reason, reminds me the most of the golden Panther, Ann. In part for the yellow colour, but also because it is a flower that, to me, represents youth. I also recall it being used in flower arrangements at the church I went to with her (I converted briefly to Episcopal, but since our divorce they (the church where I attended) don't return my calls and emails, so my decision to go Quaker was made very easy...) and thus another resonance.

Now, let's talk about black roses.

Aeons ago, when I worked briefly for a local florist, I noted the sprays they can use to recolour flowers, even to black. Always being a creature of intensity, I made a black rose for Nancy (Psyche) and gave it to her.

Years later, when her Mother passed away, I ordered an arrangement of black roses to be sent to her viewing. The black rose to me is a symbol, not of death, but of unwavering faith and intensity.

And now for the Goldenheart.

Inspired by my friend and protege, the totem of the Goldenheart, through my work "The Goldenheart Cycles", a golden heart became to me a symbol for pure love, hopeful and romantic. So much so that when I designed the cover for my 2002 book "101 Great Love Poems", even though none of the poems from that cycle of cycles was to be a part of the book, I still wanted to tip my hat to the sweet Kristina (we were never lovers, by the way...in the end she rejected me for reasons still not explained to me, and therefore, while a point of curiosity, I must accept them nonetheless...a gentleman accepts a lady's wishes).

iUniverse and I went a few rounds, as their artists wanted to tamper with the size of the heart on the cover, but I held firm and this became the first cover I did with them that was 100% of my own control.