Sunday, June 29, 2008

"You will always be Rose of Sharon to me . . . "

Props to my friend Jeff Hart on his great song "Rose of Sharon" which I'll forevermore hear in my head as I look out of my kitchen window and see my Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), also called an "Althea," blooming in my backyard:


I don't understand you,
all I know is that I love you
and that's a start.
If I can't have you,
and if I can't hold you in the dark . . .
You will always be Rose of Sharon to me
somewhere in your memory, save a kind word for me.


~ Jeff Hart, Rose of Sharon

I strongly suspect Jeff didn't write it for the flowering shrub, but it's a beautiful song, and it's lovely to see the Rose of Sharon blooming, not just in my yard but in others' yards too this time of year. I don't know who planted mine as it was here long before me, but I thank them.

5 comments:

Zack said...

I should like to hear that song. Every time I hear about a Rose of Sharon I think about the character from The Grapes of Wrath.

Jeff Hart said...

wonderful pic, bull pen. thanks for the mention.

zack, i may try to put an mp3 of that song on my myspace page. edit: (consider it done. should be up there sometime tonight.)

http://www.myspace.com/jeffhoo

Durham Bull Pen said...

@Jeff - thanks for putting Rose of Sharon up on your MySpace page for us!

And thanks for the beautiful song, too.

fmartin said...

I heard that song decades ago in the Rose Garden in Raleigh and still remember the chorus. Sure wish I could hear it again. Does anyone have a recording of Jeff Hart singing it?

Jefferson Hart said...

There doesn't seem to be one of me sining it on YouTube, but here's Greensboro's Sam Frazier doing a cover of it at a tribute show they did for me about three years ago. https://youtu.be/2EdWKBQuyeg