Unlocking her heart of gold

Running rest-day ...

... and the pictured volume today, is Michael Longley's 1995 collection entitled 'The Ghost Orchid'. There is a poem within, which has given the book its title, but I like another flower-related poem from the volume:


Water-Lily

I

As if Venus and Betelgeuse had wings
And instead of mountainside or tree-top

Had found the right place for falling stars
And glided to a standstill on the lake ...

II
(after Frederik van Eeden)

I love the white water-lily, immaculate,
Unfolding her corolla in daylight.

Rising from the cold sediments of the lake
She has seen the light and then unlocked

Her heart of gold: on the surface at one
With herself, her very own creation.

III

Finding my way by night-lights in the sky
I splash through the puddles the size of the moon

To a lake the size of the Milky Way
Which I shall call the water-lily lake.


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The observant amongst you, may recall we've got our very own Water Lillies at our local Allotment :-)