hey sorry i took so long to respond again! here goes: i prefer the prev piece abt the birds, although this piece does have its unique points. it reminds me of the nokia ad with the flowers. anyway i was kind of surprised at the title. herbs?! i'm not familiar with herbs, of course. haha but the poem (because of the herbs??!)has a nice homely, romantic feel to it. it's (i think i say this a lot?) sort of culturally remote though. hm. this piece actually has many of the conventional motifs used in love poetry...the sea...the butterflies...the roses...but these motifs have been woven into the piece with sufficient skill and hence (thankfully) avoid becoming cliche :) I particularly liked the line about the "sea strand"...not sure what it means but it conjures up such lovely images. i'm thinking of shorelines. and seaweed.. haha ok shant veer off randomly. Also liked the poignancy of the questions in the 3rd and 4th stanza...i cannot, however, come to terms with the idea of butterflies "bearing" anything or being "emptied-handed". i'm probably being very literal-minded when i say this. it sound very painful for butterflies to be carrying anything at all...whether literally or figuratively..because they are so...erm fragile? in a way the references to the butterflies seem to me to be very heartbreaking. lol.

Beautiful, excellent write.

Wonderful...gardening is a really big passion of mine so I loved this, the beautiful images of various plants. And the butterflies interweaved was an exquisite concept as well. Beautiful work...keep writing.