Echo Lake

Shall the water not remember   Ember
my hand's slow gesture, tracing above   of
its mirror my half imaginary   airy
portrait? My only belonging   longing;
is my beauty, which I take   ache
away and then return, as love   of
of teasing playfully the one being   unbeing.
whose gratitude I treasure   Is your
moves me. I live apart   heart
from myself, yet cannot   not
live apart. In the water's tone,   stone?
that brilliant silence, a flower   Hour,
whispers my name with such slight   light:
moment, it seems a filament of air,   fare
the world become cloudswell.   well.

Narcissus and Echo, by Fred Chappell


I came across this when the daffodil next to the house bloomed, and told myself if I ever took a photo of Echo Lake I would post it. It's just so damn clever.