VIOLET DREAMS

Summer's first golden spear splinters
the pale dawn haze Spring's
vision rendered mauve. Her wistful
gaze follows shattered lilac
dreams as they meld with her fading
violet vestments.

Breezes murmur over misty tendrils into
sallow branches, their airy script 
tracing unnameable tints of skies aglow
with longing high above myriad drooping
violet heads.

Infant fruit waken, clothed in pastel hues,
each an affirmation of Nature's quest,
the Great Cycle's onward march upon
paths that once were arrayed in Earth's
violet smiles.

Anon shall June's white gold melt into
pale green cheeks, beckoning
forth gay splashes of ruby and sapphire,
for to embellish her verdant
draperies, such to lay upon weeping
violets.

Roseate spume cloaks emerald swathes
bathed in tears of dolorous blue. 
Spring yields her throne to Summer, as the
meadows slumber enfolded in scented
violet dreams.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: VIOLETS

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: Henry Meynell Rheams

HOPE

Truth perished in blackened maws,

the skies rained gritty greyness

in commiseration with Earth's raw,

ragged retching.

The season of Shadows blotted out

the sun, wrested blood, bones

and words from mouths and nascent

breath from wombs.

Gold was their panacea, their souls

they laid upon Mammon's

glittering altar, as rebel saints' missals

stained cruel crimson.

Such malcontents seeking redress He

banished into limbo, sundered

legacies of history's pilgrims of peace

in grim attendance.

Nor dissent nor usurpation would He

countenance, this herald of the

spirit's plague, its famine and ruination 

amid gilded air and contrived radiance.

Man grew wary of Light amid his own

ominously waning awe for Life.

Coruscating mirages showering sparks

into nothingness held him in thrall.

Nothingness could not prevail, for naught

remained to sustain its vastness.

Now the meadows bloom grey and we,

the living, must seek ancient seeds

in the gold flecked dirt and hope for rain.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: HOPE

Artist: George Frederic Watts

Source: Google Art Project

TRIUMPH

A sudden spurt of life,

a surge before the ebbing,

thus a dying flame

prepares for darkness.

This is life's final gift,

moments of lucid calm

beneath branches 

sprouting violet stars,

a hazy vision of 

girlhood Summers.

Now abandon all anchors

for backward looking

sentiment, scrape the

memories from your skin,

this weary, thinning

palimpsest awaiting its

last lyric of liberation.

Shadows breathe, these

shall whisper you free from

your debts to light,

from voices like scythes

and maelstroms

of icy verbs.

Let your tears wash tableaux

of anguished regret

from your eyes, for naught 

could restore our

childhood sunshine.

Walk the penumbral path

paved with imbricating

vignettes of pain, 

for such you shall never 

see again. Death is

a poem, sister, and you are

its lyrical heroine.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: ON THE HEIGHTS

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Charles Courtney Curran

SONG OF THE RIVER NYMPH

Eternal Spring in these woods reigns,
fair Chloris here e'er breathes,
in moonlit glades the Dryads dance
'mid trees in pearly sheaths.

Spirit am I of blossomed banks,
of streams with gilt bedropped, 
this blended light my soul sustains,
as blooms with carmine topped.

'Mid gentle gales the currents sing,
as dazzling arrows dart
from bush to rill to orchards lush,
to buds their song impart.

Wing'd jewels airy patterns trace,
'pon dew filled cups alight,
their airy fleets the wavelets skim,
the carp and trout delight.

Silvern bounty to Earth descends,
anon the river swells,
crystal splendour the waters decks,
their chiming rebirth spells.

'Neath glowing spreads of purple stars
young Hylas his harp tunes,
his golden notes the Naiads charm,
our love the dells perfumes.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE WATER NYMPH

Source: artrenewal.org

Artist: Henry Ryland 

BUTTERFLY

Whose canvas art thou, little jewel

on wing? What magic

brush doth he wield, who traceth 

thy curves and waves,

such in violaceous tones arrayeth?

What convey these rainbow stipples

and spots, thou beauteous

friend of zephyrs? Did the artist, shy,

fearful of discovery, thus

secret epistles to his beloved pen?

Or art thou a fragment of a painter's

palette, weary grown of 

leafless halls, borne aloft by colours

athirst for Summer's blue,

of a celestial crystal azure bereft?

Perchance did fair Iris her riven robe

with silver stardust strew,

for shimmering shreds o'er flower'd

meadows to cast, that

Earth her floating vestments may don.

My poet's tongue thy song would limn,

thy mystical mission, thine

earthly purpose, for my childhood days

didst thou with lightness imbue,

with joyful teaching and gentle healing.

Thro' groves thine airy path I followed,

'long brooks, 'neath oaks, 'pon

carpets of sky; when Angels our souls 

spirit away, our hearts

e'er in Summer's greenwoods shall fly.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE BUTTERFLY

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: John Collier

LUX IN TENEBRIS

An Angel to earthly realms descended, 

Heaven's light in her

heart enshrined. O'er meads she roved,

thro' woods redolent

of growth and perishing, for life's circle

to read, for mortal essence

to imbibe, ere 'pon her sacred mission 

she embarked.

Men and women this radiant being with

misgivings regarded,

for such light had they never seen, save 

in rarest visions of ancient

memories their hours of deep slumber

held - this they knew not. 

Sole infants and babes in arms laughed

and smiled in her tongue.

Into her embrace they hastened, bearing

gifts of garlands for her

long, golden tresses, revelling, flourishing

in her aura of eternal blooming.

Unwearying this celestial messenger her

mark stamped upon Earth's

darkest corners, hallowing hearts and

homes, fields and folds.

Such goodness, alas, oft with bitterness

meets. Envy and mistrust

in the guise of a woodsman's arrow this

gentle guardian's form pierced. 

A wounded Angel 'mong the roses bled

'mid shouts of acclamation 

for the doughty marksman. The land and 

its children he had preserved.

No cries uttered she, but wordless lay in 

Summer's arms, when, from

the wide blue yonder, feathered factions

gathered; doves her prone

form into the ether raised, as roses wept,

parted, for from her blood

an ever flowering shrub arose, for snowy

stars 'pon innocence to shower.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: LUX IN TENEBRIS

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Evelyn de Morgan

THE SCENT OF ROSES

You heeded the siren call of shadows,
standing before a resplendent 
gateway to the stars. Did you not see the
hand I held out to you, sister, or
hear my impassioned pleas, as turbid
vortices beguiled you, inveigled your soul
into their murky depths?  

I espy you on the fragrant shores of past
summers, building walls with
your words where bridges should
have been. Now you cower in the belly of
the insatiable Dark with your
beloved dried blooms. Winter winds are
your sole companions now,
these minions of Death, laden with the
weariness of torpor. 

Fiends taunt embers struggling for breath
beneath the ashes amid
Summer's unseen splendour. Alas, they
have traded their immanent
diamond sparkle for gilt and rhinestones.
I yearn for the arms of our
childhood Summers, when we lay beneath
the climbing roses, drowning in
their scent, listening for unnumbered
sounds that dwell in Silence.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE PERFUME OF ROSES

Source: www.artscroll.ru

Artist: Charles Courtney Curran

SUMMER II

Her sparkle approaches upon the
crest of a rising wind.
Over green swells she sails, skims
silver lined leaves and
roseate clusters, ascending pallid,
airy stairways to drench
the clouds with her crystalline light,
with perfumed earthly dew.

Pearly pillars brace the brazen blue,
their brilliance blinds, as
Summer, unbeknownst to man and
beast, creeps into dark 
woods, claims the rillets and distant
frowning crags. Even the 
shyest wood violets extol her buoyant
spirit with sparkling song. 

Our hearts exult in Apollo's spirited
steeds surging across
Heaven's canvas, in Clytie's coronet
of scented heliotrope, 
as she gazes upon his countenance.
And I shall weave his
white gold rays into baskets aplenty
for the Solstice's treasures. 

© 2015 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image: RAYS OF THE SUN

Source: fr.wikipedia.org

Artist: Louis Janmot

SUMMER

In sylvan glades I bide, in bluebell woods,
'mid wildflow'rs far as the eye can see,

Spring's emerald meadows I deeper tint,

my spirit alights 'pon ev'ry tree.

The briar rose in my aura I clothe,

as sated bees thro' the dense air plough,

thirsty dells in the noonday heat sigh, call

to dewy winds that lave each bough.

My sun kissed lamps the arching bowers rim,

their honeyed sweetness butterflies sip,

wing'd blossoms to groves of old oaks flutter,

their petal hues 'pon woodland floors drip.

'Pon ancient forest spreads young lasses rest,

where Druids 'neath gilded catkins danced,

wreaths half-woven 'pon the grass abandon,

by garlands of flitting blooms entranced.

My music larks thro' dawn's gossamer thread,

as rainbow droplets bedeck the plains,

the early light with scents and vapours melds,

my perfumed haze the laughing springs stains.

Now the great golden orb 'pon the grain smiles,

warmth and light 'pon Nature I bestow,

o'er orchards and fields robust zephyrs glide,

for these isles with plenty to endow.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: FOREST MEADOW

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Hans Thoma

DANDELION

Fly, downy arrows, over Summer

meadows, over verduous

phalanxes stretching their arms

into the wide blue yonder.

Hasten, Heaven's haloed hopes,

to flowered banks, for

over the howling wind I hear our

tomorrows' tremulous whispers.

Whirl, gossamer wraiths, through

Summertide's scented waves,

for my sisters and I would sway

upon Earth's green spreads.

Fleet, fragile, fey flurries, beneath 

serried rows of scented

violaceous garlands, for our souls

yearn for birth and blooming.

Soar, airy shuttles, through warm,

gilded streams, weaving

laughter, harvesting joyous hues

for our petalled coronets.

Glide, faerie wind dancers, toward

fragrant fields lining the hazy

blue horizon, for there our dreams 

of blossoming await.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: thepaintcircle.com