For Teleri

Bead tree
(Melia azedrach)

for Kendall

Traveller from the east
settled under our warm sky:
after the poison leaves
have fallen, the berries
are small suns, bunches
of brightness, light
springing from dark branches, framing
the stones and tiles and cast-iron
bell tower of a village
church. And on the ground
I find a handful of fruit
whose skin shrivels, crumples
inwards to the seed. A string of these
once said the rosary, numbered
the prayers, the ninety-nine names
of Allah. Now I cut the flesh to reach
the hard centre, answer the call of the ice
from further west in the day’s circle,
make this my work, images of gold
on blue, counting my words onto paper.

Teleri Williams
May 1, 2013

Note: I originally posted this gold-on-blue sky with a double exposure of a candle. It bothered me all day. I kept feeling it was a cliché, too much like a hanging flower basket, if you follow me. Teleri detested hanging flower baskets. I have replaced the double exposure with a single exposure of the sky with nothing added. This blip is about her and her poem, but I also loved her sense of humor and her rather prickly intolerance for schmaltz (I quite like hanging flower baskets myself, but I respect her taste). So no candle after all.