A BOOK OF COMMON FLOWERS

Baker explores linguistic, historical, mythical, literary, and artistic aspects of flowers in this poetry collection.

The book opens with a tribute to the daffodil, a yellow perennial with more than 30 varieties that appears in William Wordsworth’s 19th-century lyric poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” Baker describes resilient flowers that “poke up through frozen ground, peeking out like little Pinocchio heads spreading the lie that spring has arrived.” Hyacinth, named after a Spartan prince and immortalized by T.S. Eliot in “The Waste Land,” is a staple of the Roman Catholic Church at Easter, the author notes, “rising late for Mass but smiling like she just came out the red door of Elizabeth Arden on Fifth Avenue.” Forsythia intuitively folds into itself to protect its pollen from the rain, while Eve’s tears allegedly birthed the Easter lily with its “white trumpet face,” the poet writes. Lilacs, representing first love and spring, were central to Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865), honoring late President Abraham Lincoln, Baker notes, and he points out that although zinnias are native to Mexico and Central America, they gained prestige as the first flower to bloom on the International Space Station in 2016. Dandelions, “disdained by homeowners striving to present the perfect lawn to neighbors,” are also an essential nectar source for bees, the book notes. Baker considers the carnation a “Little soldier in the flower bed” that is “always perky if a bit quirky.” He concludes with a lamentation that “The only love blossoms now are my poems, because you don’t bring me flowers any more.”

Baker’s passionate appreciation for his subject is apparent in his unique, detailed descriptions of various blooms, such as lily of the valley, described as a “pale princess yawning and stretching, a ballerina rising from a lake of acid-brown soil,” or the rhododendron with “pink flowers exploding from hairy-palmed sea green leaves.” Adams’ ethereal watercolors capture the essence of each topic while Carroll’s sharp photography showcases the blooms’ individual characteristics and intricate textures. However, some comparisons are disconcerting, as when daffodils are described as looking “like refugees from some war-torn country, crammed together and stuck in water” or the way a potted geranium is “pushed and prodded like Black brothers off an ocean clipper ship.” Political commentary, such as associating “POTUS” with the perennial narcissus, seems incongruent with the tone of much of the book. Most jarring, though, is the book’s frequent sexualization of the flowers, as in a depiction of a hyacinth that “reeks sweet and perfumed like most well washed whores,” a forsythia as the “forced fornicator of spring” resembling “pre-cum babies,” or a hollyhock as a “Holy cock—rising erect.” In addition, poetry lovers may be disappointed with the way Baker buries the lede of the flowers’ beauty by beginning each entry with paragraphs of fun facts, historical and mythological references, and even care instructions that read like nonfiction aimed at gardening clubs.

An ambitious, multidisciplinary poetry book that far too often wanders off the garden path into questionable territory.