Pressed Flowers

Written By Catherine Knee

Time has a way of preserving some things...

AI Illustration for poem "Pressed Flowers" by Catherine Knee. An elderly woman sits alone by a rain covered window while a faded pressed flower and a framed photograph of her younger self rest on a dusty table in a quiet sitting room.

AI Artwork

Pressed Flowers

(Portrait of an old woman)

 

Squeezed beneath the book of life

your colours fade and leach.

 

Your beauty is preserved,

brittle and paper thin,

a meagre reflection of the days of glory

when you blossomed with colour,

with scent and with youth

 

Now you are glued

to a picture frame

first admired, then ignored,

and there you remain

neglected,

and alone.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this poem came from noticing just how delicate an elderly woman had become. Her skin seemed almost translucent, her body so fragile, yet she possessed a quiet beauty that stopped me in my tracks. She reminded me of a pressed flower; faded by time, but still worthy of being treasured.

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© Catherine Knee 2026. All rights reserved.

AI Declaration

AI was used solely to create the accompanying artwork.

No AI was used in the writing of this poem.

Pressed Flowers is a contemporary poem by Catherine Knee reflecting on ageing, memory, beauty, loneliness and the passage of time through the portrait of an elderly woman.

Catherine Knee
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