Cultivated for over 2000 years
Named after a Greek god of healing
Peonies only flower for 7-10 days.

The god Paean knew the remedies for all things.
His medicine brought instant relief to the god of war
As well as to the wounded god of the underworld.

Sun Tung Po viewed peonies at the Temple of
Good Fortune on a cloudy afternoon.
Keats glutted sorrow on the wealth of globèd peonies.

Amy Lowell compared buds of peonies to a woman’s nipples.
Billy Collins’s perfect garden burst with peonies.
Their pools of lace broke Mary Oliver’s heart.

I move them around the house with me
To save them from the cats.