DACHAU

Stumbling into

Stillness,

our whispers drown out

screams that once

rent Earth's sacred air.

Frozen dreams, 

suspended breath,

songs unsung,

tales untold,

longings inchoate,

love unrequited,

assail me.

Winds of silent

remonstrance

blow through

the trees.

Nature's unrest 

I perceive, 
her cries

echo yesterday's
darkness; 
here, her sinless 

children were
defiled.

Alas, our tears

can scarce make 

restitution,

our prayers

sparse atonement,

for thwarting

souls unborn.

Pour your wishes

into this vessel

wholly unworthy.

Divine will guided

me to tread this 

hallowed ground.

Your spirit I will carry

if the Universe 

so ordains.

Repose in power,

enfolded in Light, peace 

and Angels' wings.

© 2014 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image: www.worldwideprayerweb,org

MICHAELMAS

Dawn skies accoutred in
thy sacred blue
seek pallid clouds with
sapphire to imbue.
Lapis drops they shower o'er
thy dearest blooms;
Angel warrior's promise the
air perfumes.


Aspens rejoice, in thy violet
light bathed;
Nature wakens to victory's
banners raised.
Gilded plumes burst from thy
sword's radiant hilt,
soft alight 'pon Autumn's
red-gold quilt.


Honeyed rays haloed in
amethyst glow
of thy triumphs tell to the
Great Below;
their sweetness they strew
'pon flaxen hay,
Earth's deepest crypts grace 
this third quarter day.


"As darker nights and colder
days begin
and the year all exhorts to
turn within,
thro' Wintertide protect our
every breath,
all Creation preserve in life 
and death."

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL DEFEATING SATAN
Source: galleryhip.com
Artist: Guido Reni

MICHAELMAS DAISY 

Jewel of Heaven with the

Sun in thy heart,

wandering star, from thy

kinfolk loath to part,

to Earth didst thou descend

for man's soul to cheer,

thro' Autumn's gloom to cast

thy light 'pon the year.

For St. Michael's dauntless
deeds thou gaily bloomst,
minions of darkness to
ruination doomst,
'pon thy silken petals donnst
his brightest hue,
Summer's withered blossoms
we no longer rue.

To the fading year thou
chantest "Fare thee well",
thy violaceous song echo'th
o'er wood and dell.
Smile 'pon us, as Fall's last
blackberries we reap,
thy radiance in our hearts till
Spring shall we keep.

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: www.redbubble.com

DAY

Crepuscular gloom I inhale 
beneath the swaying silver 
birch at high noon.

Memories of light and breath,
of pale rose petals sailing 
on the wind, beckon through 
acres of murky timelessness.

A sweet voice I hear, its 
childish lilt a glimmer in my 
half-light, alas, merely echoes
of words never spoken.

I peer into the bird bath, 
seek my invisible reflection,
cry tears I cannot see, their 
briny warmth I cannot feel.

The grass seems by age 
untouched, as do the melodies 
that paint the roses, their 
scent denied me, though their
roots once embraced my bones.

From lustreless depths I spot
her, as she falters 
through Stygian palls; clothed
in a penumbral haze, her earthly
perdition she curses  
in the dazzling sunshine.

Radiance brighter than day 
washes o'er me...

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: www.pinterest.com

LAVENDER AND FLAME 

Lavender reams, wave upon wave
of misty blue surges in the half light,
memory's portals throws wide open.

Fount of laughter gushes gaily forth,
fairy spume fringes her eyelashes,
tints her woeful tears with past joy.

The guttering flame she perceives
not, sorrow dances in the arms of joy
in the dimming firelight.

Silhouettes of beloved tales mottle
scented walls, diffuse lines longing
for the voice that rendered them clear.

Violet brume showers garlands of
verse long forgotten, their soothing
incandescence mantles her form.

Nets of elation though she may cast
into the cascading cadences, scarce
a bygone song would they confine. 

Little hands soft as Angels' feathers 
caress mother's cheek, celestial gift,
in her infant eyes a known light shines.

Maternal shadow smiles, restores
yesterday's child, tomorrow nestled
glutted, peaceful, upon her bosom. 

© 2014 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image source: ehdu.livelournal.com 
Artist: Edward Killingworth Johnson

FIRST POINT OF LIBRA

Crystalline chimes of celestial clocks 
resound o'er Earth's withering blanket,
herald hallowed darkness' advent. 

Yon stellar calendar bids Creation retreat,
abjure the sunlit world, divest herself
of her sumptuous Summer draperies.

Snow-stained winds embark on their
journey to Winter's realms at Midpoint
of Autumn, abode of equal night and day.

"On the threshold of repose by the light
of the Harvest moon, must you your 
losses and gains appraise, your soul's
reaping review."

"Descend into the fertile vastness of the
bountiful Deep, at her hearth shall you
learn the secrets of life's mystical songs."

"Heed Nature's bidding, pause to reflect, 
ruminate, reaffirm, replenish, restore
your spirit's equilibrium; journey beyond
illusion to your truth."

"Rejoice in Earth's balance, ere blessed
dark overcomes light, ere Winter
winds lull her into deepest slumbers."

"Give thanks for deepening shadows, for 
decaying blooms, for they shelter 
and nourish the seeds of tomorrow's 
promises and dreams."

"Memories of this sacred day of divine 
balance, of equal light and dark, in your 
hearts bear, till fragrant chimes echo o'er
Earth's blooming blanket in Spring."

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: www.taringa.net

AUTUMN WOODLAND

Fall's healing woods his weary eyes crave,
his heart yearns for Nature's gilded songs;
for cheerless hues these city paths pave,
a cold grey mantles hastening throngs.

Sole solitude his pace would slacken
'mid boundless expanse green-gold and lush
with flowering furze and dew-drenched bracken,
winsome warble of the mistle thrush.

Thro' silvern mists he tranquil ambles,
'pon ribbons of wind-bronzed Autumn grass,
'long canes studded with purple brambles,
fawn rays glinting off each jewell'd mass.

Gold-laced pillars of silver birch rise
up to embrace crystal snow-drenched winds;
enraptured he notes their counsel wise,
tho' man from Nature's ways e'er prescinds.

'Pon leaf-ed carpets he placid lies,
Mother's heart heeds ere she reposes;
enwrapped in snow 'neath pale Winter skies,
her womb bearing Spring's brightest roses. 

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: DEW DRENCHED FURZE
Source: www.wikiart.org
Artist: John Everett Millais

TOMATO SOUP

Why can I not look away, as you 
ladle my favourite scarlet puree
into a patterned cream majolica
bowl, this composite
effusing grassy odours and ripe
roiling resentment, my twin, 
gestated over
nine endless months?

I have grown to relish our mutual
sharing of remorse,
mother, topped with a dollop of
cream and a chilly smile,
and your very own seasoning of
distilled tears, acrid
rage and sharp curses I first
tasted in the womb.

You fill my bowl to overflowing,
yet, you begrudge me 
every breath. My fevered brow
burns hotter, as I
savour each spoonful, a cold,
cruel searing I do not 
comprehend constricting my
throat, shards of dead,
dried herbs lacerating its walls.

Hatred of myself will always be

a breathless, acrid scraping

within, a formless flaying  
redolent of your famed
tomato soup and my own blood.

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: IN THE GARDEN
Source: www.tumblr.com
Artist: Denis Sarazhin

KEY OF A 

Dawn's winds weave milky wisps
into cerulean veils, rippling mirrors
bestrew with shreds and patches. 

A snowy turtledove casts her pearly
paean to coral fringes, her placid 
eyes stained with selfsame brush.

Lapis swallowtails gather her pale
margarites, strings them onto silver
grey filaments, runic oblations bear
to yon hallowed amber orb.

Violet irises preen in velvet picotee
gowns, blazing citrine rays drench
their purple bodices, trickle down 
frilled skirts.

Anemones, in Aphrodite's tears 
bathed, in plummy ruby of Adonis' 
blood arrayed, ambrosial verse 
chant to love everlasting.

Daughters of the wind in amethyst
circlets proffer perfumed wine laced
with berry notes in petal goblets. 

Celestial benefaction rains upon
Nature; awash in a symphony of hues,
tones, treasures, Earth, 
this Springtide, is redeemed.

© 2014 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image: DAY
Source: www.liveinternet.ru
Artist: Edward Robert Hughes

DOVE

Ancient flight paths you trace through

earthly prisons of your choosing,

hurtling through flesh and bone, over

substanceless silences gravid

with hollow convolutions, with unease.

You, as I, assented to this grim covenant,

seeking aim in rigid emptiness,

patterns in the erratic latticework of your

journey, alas, merely a pareidolia,

memory of starlit song your only cheer.

Ring of the dead borders terra incognito,

residuum of their desolation

swept away with the dust of yesterday.

Your bloodied utterances fleck

their tombs, lamentations for posterity.

For uncounted hours you mark the brittle

beat of your wings, your downy

feathers bedizen the feet of the mighty.

Shorn of your plumage you lie,

awaiting pinions of Light to set you free.

Fly away upon silver-white stardust waves,

gliding blithesome, dispersing sinuous

trails of last pearlescent teardrops

in your wake. Merge joyfully into

boundless oceans of shimmering cyan light.

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE DOVE
Source: www.oceansbridge.ca
Artist: Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench

THE CHARMER

As roses my lays breathe perfume,

as charms they waken fields and plains;

to Earth they fall, light as a plume,

her spreads warm till no frost remains.

To beauteous Gaea blithe I chant,

my hymns and paeans bless the air;

a goddess fair her boon did grant,

the name of Brizo now I bear.

Nor kith nor kin know whence I came,

nor whither I would aim to go;

Spring’s streams I trace with dawn aflame

to fields where pearl-kissed lilies grow.

'Mid nacred blossoms was I found,

with milky buds 'pon infant brow;

a shepherd did my words astound -

this orphan lisped an arcane vow.

‘Tis said of Aoede I spoke,

the Muse my voice with silver touched;

with praise of her one morn I woke,

her laurel in wee fingers clutched.

Sole blooms for ornament I take,

my garb I weave of threads sapphir',

for naught would I my one troth break,

my life I pledged this sacred lyr'.

These strings with love and art I drew,

their strains ring dulcet, gay and warm;

from boughs that life and death construe

I carved its matchless arch-ed form.

My gladsome airs hail man and beast,

as tales of winds and trees I tell;

E’en leaves thrum to my tuneful feast

as birds their praise enchanted spell.

My song bids all serene disport,

‘pon Nature’s path anew begin;

to this I troubled souls exhort,

their harmony to seek within.

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: commons.wikimedia.org

'The Charmer'

Artist: John William Waterhouse

AUTUMN

Late August winds embrown grassy 

meadows beset with cornflowers; 

crystal blue asterisms imbibe remnants 

of the heavens' Summertide azure.

A translucent cyan veil, freed from 

parching torpor, gently undulates. 

Diaphanous scrolls, eggshell curlicues, 

carom across dreamlike expanses.

Summer's boisterous choristers chant 

placid farewells, unravel mystical 

dispatches borne upon cooled, sapid, 

heather-laden Zephyrs.

Dark honey rays melt into apple cider 

breezes, mottle yesterday's green 

with shades of harvest's ripe bounty. 

Apple, damson, plum, pear, dapple 

fall foliage, twirl in thyme-scented 

vortices, festoon forest floors.

Dahlias dipped in September dawns'

dewy damask gaze into 
mystical expanses, rejoice as they
espy the First Point of Libra 

on the horizon.

Autumn's tune, this bittersweet air of

a misty interim redolent with plenty, 
laces the pale aureate air. 
Pensive melody, ebullient harmony, 
bid man and Nature repose.

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: www.studiointernational.com
Autumn Leaves
Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe