BLUE MOON

This is an uncommon moon, nor blue,
nor brighter, still a treasure
of my soul, one it knows from the dawn
of time, when it flickered 
in the ether, when her orb inspired
euphoric awe that stumbled
through the dark, finding no words.

I was to speak my devotion beneath
earthly skies, upon blooming
meadows and grey crags, her radiance
descending as softest down,
mantling land and air with a mysterious
light my inner eye discerned,
that shone in my very bones.

As High Priestess, upon Selene's altar
I poured libations of wine and
milk, chanting my first veneration to the
third full moon of the Season,
a song, the silver of which chimed in my
spirit, yet it saw not its provenance.

This night, I kneel in Nature's own shrine;
the goddess lifts the veil, one
that guards my nescience through myriad
moons, masks and litanies of 
untruths. She is my celestial looking glass,
an oracle of Time and Truth;
she would reveal my true reflection.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: SELENE

Source: galleryhip.com

Artist: Jules Louis Machard

STELLA

Your light first blessed my eyes,
they said, and named
me for you. Yet, I neither shine,
nor sustain; a mere reed
in the wind am I, an idle wanderer,
an infinitesimal spark
in Time's veiled vortex, a novitiate
upon the soul's path unworthy of
this luminous appellation.

Through my darkness, I journey,
a discontented zetetic,
my eyes starward, vexing all whose
vessels drift broadside to
your grandeur, pondering your
niveous fire purfled with hibernal
glow sailing upon the lofty 
curve of an eternally hebetic
whirlpool, this Season the Meridian 
of our heavens.

Your asterisms I do not see, for such
are benefactions for worlds
yet unknown. In dreams, in mystical
visions, you constellate in harmony
with your brethren, honouring
etheric spaces that at once sunder
and unite you in accord with
celestial will upon the path
to cosmic consonance.

You, whose form my newborn eyes
first beheld, grant that I
may gaze into your enlightened spirit,
that I may be initiated into
your light. I shall seek a higher purpose,
I shall seek to be starlike.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: NYX, NIGHT GODDESS

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Gustave Moreau

WHISPER

The waif whispered.

Her words slid to

the ground like

metal chains;

yet, it was a

soundless deluge, 

a firm yet friable

force, as though

an iron butterfly

had flitted

in and out 

of the room.

Such an impression

remained

of her being

weighted down,

as when

'light' and 'sprightly' 

were uttered 

by thunder,

as a rough

charcoal sketch

of an Angel. 

Little lotus feet

in ebony clogs

fluttered,

as doves in

pewter cages.

A soot grey kite

tried in vain

to catch the wind

with a string

of words.

An ashen grave

of a life

unspoken,

a graveyard

of phrases,

at last

forsook

her dark refuge,

releasing a

whispered,

barely breathing

"I'm sorry".

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: MADELEINE

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: Arthur Hughes

SIRIUS

To me, you seem the remotest of all,
standing apart from a
splendid stellar pantheon, elevated,
as a sparkling starling
upon an etheric perch, bearing your
radiance with an intricate
blend of humility and pride, as a new
monarch his orb and sceptre.

I come, as ever, to seek great Polaris,

Savant of the North,

his prudent counsel, but my wayward

gaze sweeps across the

floaty filigree of ink-dark Elysian veils

to your godlike glow,

worthy of Andromeda's coronet, of the

Pleiades' white gold tresses.

A child regards the glittering gateway

to her own Heaven and haven,

where Orion laid his hand upon her head

and Pegasus told of sojourns 

between the clouds; where she wished

upon meteors, hoping for 

smiles and succour, longing to hear the

music of the heavens.

She yearns for sleep, for in dreams alone

could she run in the rainbow,

tread the lane of light to you, to your silver

song sailing celestial streams.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: commons.wikimedia.org

MOTHER AND PEARL

Awaken, divine Mother! Helios sleeps,
the hour of subtler gold
shall dawn with a flood of your gilded
nacre, with showers of pallid fire. 

Stream your fulsome fulgence, blessed
Mother moon, gentle and restoring,
over crags into plangent,
pulsating blackness, into ancient caverns 
and crevices speckled with 
the blood of the fallen, resounding with 
echoes of battle cries and betrayal.

Soften its gravid starkness, soothe its
torment, becalm warring wights,
that peace and light may endure, till you,
celestial arbitress, as Mother,
may once more enfold the darkness,
renew your solacing.

Rise in your silver chariot, Elysium's 
beloved Pearl, for Poseidon 
awaits his 'light as a poem with dreams 
in her eyes'. Spill your argent
beauty upon his restive waves, gaze into
his mirror, that his daughters may
for a moment wear your radiant crown.

Suffuse his treasure chest that craves to
hold your matchless glow,
the glory of your tremulous haze. 
Revel in the glamour of the lustrous sprite
who regards you from azure depths,
as the High Priestess anoints your altar.

By and by shall Eos emerge from eastward
Gates of Gold. Bid the earth farewell,
o Womb and Child, Mother and Pearl,
Muse and goddess, till Nyx cloaks the skies.

© 2015 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image: RADIANT MOON
Source: www.liveinternet.ru
Artist: Edward Robert Hughes

Image: MOONBEAMS DIPPING INTO THE SEA
Source: www.liveinternet.ru
Artist: Evelyn de Morgan

SELENE

Her jewels she gives into Eos' keeping,
her lucent train lays away;
divine opalescence that painted land
and sea with the mystical
radiance of dreams, that drowned the
stars, now languishes.

A fragile sliver of weary ivory lingers;
still her blanched, brittle
beams trace each arc and slant of otiose
dreaming, her stark, pallid
beauty as a plume upon rippling cyan
marbled with rose and grey.

"Would Helios carve your nacreous white 
visions, that pearls to Earth
may fall, the choicest to grace the finest
poet's vellum, the master
melodist's staves, that yearning souls may
panegyrise your pulchritude?"

"I shall bide, impatient for your awakening, 
o cynosure of gods and
man alike, that with kindred spirits I may
unite in your worship, that
hearts sundered by miles and walls may
meet upon your silver bridge."

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: SELENE

Source: tumblr.com

Artist: Albert Aublet

REVERIE

My mind hovers over a cage, a calmly
confounding cacophony of
hoary heartbeats, of prosaic prolificacy
and vain verbigeration, bides
awhile between the flesh and the mirror,
casting off illusions, ere it
could bridge the turmoil and the void.

Revelations of nightly repose segue into
waking visions, merge with
lucid musing, as birdsong with Springtide
mists, their streams I would not
disjoin, for the light of every dream thrills 
through day's darkness, 
quells the unquiet heart's vociferation.

The soul alone whispers, for this element 
of knowing, of limitless expanse,
spurns loudness. It treads the path of Truth
into Life, for to lend utterance
to the Universe's will. Naught could stay its
course, nor slow its flight,
for it yearns to be restored unto the Light.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: REVERIE

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: Paul Hoecker

THE RETURN

A tyrant spell binds me to moments spent
'mid bluebells' whispers with moonsong blent;
thro' dead years I strain to the path I took
past groves to flow'red banks of the sparkling brook.
Echoes of my steps 'pon the flagstone walk
butterflies and honeybees gaily stalk.

Perchance faint perfumes my formlessness stain
of blossoms that long 'pon my breast have lain;
mayhap their fragrant souls to mine own cling,
for once more to attend Earth's tunes of spring.
Paths of old to the hillock I retrace,
for to seek eventide's last golden grace.

Erelong a silvery suffusion fills
the velvet night, 'pon thirstful violets spills;
an angelic chanting that erst I knew
rings thro' placid woodlands, gentle and true.
My visions of love merge with sylvan dreams,
in their mingling radiance the forest gleams.

'Mid a chorus of heartstrings I shall bide
'neath the opaline glow of Heaven's bride,
till Time to capricious wanderers calls,
for all such to guide into starry halls.
Thro' luminous traversing I shall yearn
to green spaces of rapture to return.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium candidum

Image: PORTRAIT OF AGNES MALLIAM

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: Frank Dicksee

REVELATION

Empyrean streams quench Day's fire,

flood the dusty welkin's

furnaces with deepest violet-blue.

Plumy pearly panicles encircle Polaris,

coronate the composedness

of distant glacial grandeur.

Zephyrus woos Chloris, mirroring the

play of the aeons around the moon,

more light than substance

this sedate night, a wishful sprite upon

her throne, yet, ever mindful of her

fealty pledged to celestial suzerains

upon Time's shores.

A temperate glow, as one of goodness,

of an exalted potency

human faculties shall never render,

silvers the air into a space

of knowing, as though all creation were

nestled in the heart of

a capacious bloom of heavenly radiance.

The glutted spirit rests in the solace of  

blessed visitation; prayers rise into

the æther, the Light heals and completes.

Even divinities would kneel before

this tranquil argent splendour, as eternity,

for one fleeting, hallowed moment,

shines through transience. 

© 2015 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image: DOVEDALE BY MOONLIGHT
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Artist: Joseph Wright of Derby

THE MYSTIC

A glister threads the surge and fall of

her mesmeric chanting;

she sings of radiant rivers overhung

with rippling celestial reams.

"Far from this black stour blossoms a

grove of Light, a halidom

that is the province of the inner eye,

a fabric of divine afflatus

woven from ancient starlight, bestrewn

with astral cantillation."

"At your purest, you beheld its wafture, 

attended its hallowed 

tintinnabulation, as billowing veils

spoke their mysteries.

The sun and moon echo their refrains

as the waters and skies,

as volant songsters. Indeed, its tones

resonate in every atom

and star, in realms of brightness,

in darkest cosmic recesses; its runnels

traverse your spirits,

nourish the tree of life."

"All who strive to see the invisible, voice

the ineffable, must be made

vivid by inward journeying. Cast off your

vanities, eschew obliquity,

ere you would lave yourselves in pools

of depurating mellifluence.

Thus shall you know your inscape, in deep

silences of content shall

you comprehend Circle and Spiral."

"Such is the emprise of the pilgrim of Light -

a daunting voyage through

elemental cataracts. Upon brilliant waves,

he sets himself adrift,

affining his soul to its currents, fathoming

its depths, unravelling its 

gnomic pronouncements, till his very breath

is indistinguishable from its 

molten whorls."

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE GATES OF LIGHT

Source: pinterest.com

Artist: Mordecai Ardon