Thursday, February 19, 2015

Carnation Lily Lily Rose


[on the beautiful painting by John Singer Sargent]
]
we hold the lanterns in our gaze and they shall not go out
the lily, the rose, the lily rose shadows their carnation
stillnesses the children will not ravel

the edge of this twilight ever softly they blossom
in the borders near the clumps of the flowers familiar to them

and the lanterns sway in the painting as if it were a real garden
and only slightly it is, the wind of the carnation, the lily,
the rosed lilies

the light the light
we hold within our hearts within within
the coloured lanterns swaying in the

purple instant this cannot fade
the lights go out or
the lanterns stir in the evening breeze

the carnation breeze, the beautiful the beautiful
weaving of the lily and the rose all before and afters
shining, the self-same lanterns in our gaze

the night that will never come
the distant song forever distant
time and the flowers at a standstill
the children, murmuring

mary angela douglas 19 february 2015 rev. 11 june 2015