Washington Blossoms for Helen Herron Taft
Margaret Rozga
Poetry, photography
$100
They read together. Her Ohio literary salon
the root of their marriage. It blossoms
in Washington. Her diplomacy bold
and shy pink, white. Cherry trees.
Helen, affectionately Nellie, brings
flowering to the Tidal Basin
though her name is pruned
from this history cut to one sentence:
the original trees were a gift from the Japanese.
She thrives in the White House, plants
cultural traditions, music with state dinners,
and open to all, concerts in West Potomac Park.
He applauds the artful growth she nurtures.
Though his re-election hopes shrivel, more
bloom on the judicial branch, so Nellie, now
rooted deeply in the District, cultivates more
ground, favors voting rights for women.
Her dream, her dreams, realized,
her legacy blossoms.
Artist Statement
I happened to be in residence at Write On, Door County, after I had written the poem and wondered how I could include an image of cherry blossoms with the print of the poem. The answer was on the table in my room, a sprig of faux cherry blossoms there in a vase. I positioned a sturdy copy of the poem so that some of the blossoms were included. I used watercolor pencils to enhance the pink of the blossoms. The printer extended color to the page in a way that seemed magical.
About the Artist
As 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Margaret Rozga co-edited the anthology Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems (Art Night Books, 2020). Her fifth book of poems is Holding My Selves Together: New and Selected Poems (Cornerstone Press, 2021). Her other books include 200 Nights and One Day, poems about Milwaukee’s 1967-68 fair housing marches in which she was a participant, Though I Haven't Been to Baghdad, poems responding to her Army Reservist son's deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Justice Freedom Herbs with its social justice theme in gardening metaphors, and Pestiferous Questions: A Life in Poems about politically well-connected Jessie Benton Frémont (1824-1902).
Her essays appeared recently in the South Florida Poetry Journal, Mom Egg Review and Wisconsin Magazine of History. She is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee at Waukesha and was recently chosen the first scholar / artist in residence at the UWM at Waukesha Field Station. More at margaretrozga.com.