Natural speech

Yes I can hear rhododendron 

It's twenty degrees so I

 

can see through her

Her leaves are closed

Thinner than her branches

 triangulated white background

with twisted holes of branches

Held in thrall by  buds

Standing fiercely frigid

Above it all

Reviews

[Thornbirds]

There is a cold and quiet beauty in this, and I love how the poem shapes into a vase, one day they will hold blooms when winter thaws the rhododendron.

[Donald Meikle]

right now the snowflakes fall through tightened leaves (the vase was unplanned