Thank you to those who submitted your poems last month! Here is February's inspirational image. Thistle with Insects, by Barbara Regina Dietzsch (1706–1783), gouache on vellum, Germany.

The thistle is prickly but inviting. Evoking one who is barbed but has a soft heart, the thistle’s prickliness is associated with self-protection, impenetrability, austerity and resilience.

We look forward to reading your poems! Please respond with them here. Thank you!

- ARAS