Searching for a poem to feature this week, this one called out to me as I turned the page. I think it was the image of the Queen Anne's Lace, a plant that I have always loved. It's true that autumn is not as colorful here in southeast Texas as it is in more northern climes but we do have Queen Anne's Lace. All is not lost!
by Richard Wilbur
One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides
The Queen Anne’s Lace lying like lilies
One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides
The Queen Anne’s Lace lying like lilies
On water; it glides
So from the walker, it turns
Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you
Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes.
The beautiful changes as a forest is changed
By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;
As a mantis, arranged
On a green leaf, grows
Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves
Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows.
Your hands hold roses always in a way that says
They are not only yours; the beautiful changes
In such kind ways,
Wishing ever to sunder
Things and things’ selves for a second finding, to lose
For a moment all that it touches back to wonder.
Our landscape is awash in Queen Anne’s Lace at present, but soon the flowers will fade for another year, and our memory will have to suffice.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely to be "awash in Queen Anne's Lace" even for a little while.
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