One Deep Breath anniversary

This week marks the one year anniversary of the One Deep Breath poetry prompts, and the subject this week is "poet's choice". In the end, I felt myself torn as I tried to think about what I would submit, whether it be my most recent poem on the casualty count in Iraq, or possibly the magnolia haiku.

In the end, I chose the magnolia poem because I feel that it is the better of the two. And I like the pictures... And, well, sometimes I think we need to take strength from joyful things in order to face the shadows. So I will likely edit the magnolia post to include a bit of this commentary, and possibly a link to the poem I didn't choose.