Alternative title: The Baby in Red.
Haiku poem about me as a 4 yr-old with my long black hair (I could sit on it when I was 4), wearing my beautiful rose-red dress (my ‘good’ dress), and having a ride on my rocking horse. The first stirrings of independence!
The poem was inspired by this photo, taken when we visited Alexandra on a really cold winter morning and Central Otago was transformed by hoar frost. These are wild roses, wild and free. Photo taken by Nigel, 02 June 2018
The Rocking Horse
— by Liz Cowburn
Snow White and Rose Red,
Black-haired girl taking the reins,
Rocking the red dress.
My poetic effort initially inspired by: recent poems by Damien B. Donnelly
The first was Limitation of Roses which harks back to Damien’s childhood home. I thought it a brilliant poem.
I replied to him, dubbing his poem ‘The Rise of the Roses’ (hehe) and shared with him the above photo of wild roses.
The photo inspired him to another poem: The Price of Being Wild
His efforts in turn motivated me – to look at the photo anew and find my own meaning.
For more poems by Damien: Deuxiemepeau Poetry by Damien B. Donnelly
Text and poem by Liz, photo by Nigel; Exploring Colour (2020)
Exploring Colour 
That’s a very pleasing frosty photo and a lovely Haiku as well. Trying to picture being able to sit on one’s own hair…especially for a follicly challenged person such as myself. 🙂
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What a lovely, memorable frost, and the rose hips are like glowing embers.
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Yes, you’re right. It was a very memorable day and those red rose rips sure glow. In fact, that photo came from a post I did called ‘Fire and Ice’ https://exploringcolour.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/fire-and-ice/
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Love your haiku! I remember the title ‘Snow White and Rose Red’ but not much else. Hoping not to see any more frost here – last night’s temp was very low.
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We’re getting frosts regularly now. Pretty cold in the mornings. I read the story online last night, quite sweet. I’ll just tell you that their mother had two rosebushes in her garden, one a white rose and the other a red rose. Thought you’d like that bit 😉
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You know me..hehe!
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Nice! I’m sure both poem and photo will get a warm (not frosty) reception!
The first line rang a bell, I remember Snow White had a Red sister, but have completely forgotten the story, if I ever knew it. My younger sister also had a red “dress up” dress, which she loved and would’ve worn every day, if my mother let her.
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Thank you Robert! I’ve also forgotten the story but I remember a picture of them. Snow White was blond and wore a white rose and Rose Red was dark-haired and wore a red rose. The picture was really sweet and memorable 🙂
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That’s great! Love it.
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Big thank you, dear Kay 🙂
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