jasmine

California jasmine

my head is full of you.

a lover who knows

no end. finds me

in daylight,

lights dusk.

pulls me in,

casting a net

to trap me

in sweet, fragrant

seduction.

peu de fleur blanche,

my head is full of you,

you’ve pushed

everything else

out.

On my recent stop in Hollywoodland, I encountered bushes of flowering jasmine. I don't remember having ever been wrapped in a flower's scent quite like this before. It may be because of the sunny day and good company, but it put something inside of me. And I couldn't help but sing Seals and Crofts' song Summer Breeze for the rest of the week ... 'blowing through the jasmine of my mind.' I was so entranced that on return home, I made a mix tape of summer breeze, 70's music for myself. I have been to California before, but this was the first visit that I caught some of what I think to be the 'vibration' of the place. And that same vibration is what I imagine to be infused into the easy rock of the 70's.

The tape (really CD, and no, not an IPOD ... low tech stuff here) has been playing on a loop in my car for a couple of weeks now. And one thing that I've discovered is that the lyrics of Summer Breeze are different than I thought them to be. While in California, I kept singing, 'sweet days of summer, the jasmine's in bloom/ July is dressed up and waiting for June.' I always loved that line ... the idea that one month was waiting for the other to ring the bell. Like a girl all dolled up and waiting for her first date. But in the loop, I discovered that is not what they are singing at all. The line goes, 'sweet days of summer, the jasmine's in bloom/ July is dressed up and playing her tune.' Imagine that. Additionally, for days, I asked my host ... the jasmine is in bloom now in March, why are they singing about it being in bloom in June and July? Maybe it is that this magnificent bloom cycles through the summer ... each month dresses up for the one before to come and bring her sweet fragrance.