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To Answer Your Question: Why I Take Pictures of Flowers...

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Words & digital photographs by Alysa Cummings
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: July 7, 2011

Oncolink Poet-in-residence and breast cancer survivor Alysa Cummings believes in the healing power of writing and photography. But especially pictures of flowers. In her latest piece, she shares some favorites from her summer garden and tries to explain her choice of subject matter.

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Flowers are not pharmaceuticals.
Flowers are not ports or picc lines.
pale pink gerbera daisy

Flowers don't need
sentinel node biopsies.
buds closed tight -
squinting eyes in the bright sun

Flowers are never
'one-in-eight.'
delicate dancing yellow iris petals

Flowers are rarely if ever
deleterious mutations.
columbine blooms,
purple and pink wings

Flowers warm my heart.
Flowers fill my senses,
crowding summer's rich color scheme
into my camera lens.
Year after year, flowers heal me -
margins clear and always clean.

Words & digital photographs by Alysa Cummings