A suggestion, And a question :-) My suggestion The line about "my daily efforts scenting your breath" confused me, as I read it to mean the reader/person the rose is talking to must be eating roses, before I realised you meant the air was scented by the the rose. Perhaps you could rephrase that? Or have I got it wrong and they were eating them? My Question Do you mean "gather me on a special occasion, remember: I can be given only once" (ie the rose that is talking)? or, as you have written, that the reader/person the rose is talking to can only be given once? Shanna :-) All our poetry pros seem to be off for the holidays, so this is an amateur opinion :-)