THE HEART OF THE ROSE

She alone hears the white whisper 

of the silken spume 

dripping from Aphrodite's skin,
the fluid falling 

of the briny froth that moulded
the curves and waves

of her milky-petalled coronet,

as the Goddess rose into Eos' Gold.

The Divinity's purest Light she shines, 

Her breath of Innocence

sweeter than Chloris' perfumes.

Amid her whorls, Nature reposits 

her florilegium of Peace

by an ivory flame that draws tides

and winds, fire and earth, 

to the Ocean of her soul, merging

their strains into perfect accord.

In her heart, Pardon enfolds rebirth, 

its silver embers afloat 

against Hope's sky declaring its

hues through the Silence that reigns 

over a depurating metamorphosis,

elevating Spirit and Elements 

into a world yet unknown.

© 2016 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE HEART OF THE ROSE

Source: www.flickr.com

Artist: Elihu Vedder

LILY

Upon Time's measureless expanse,

the Goddess of Love 

laid the triquetra of her dominion,

marrying aeonian

triads of Beauty and Eternity,

bonding Greens and Golds 

of Birth and Hope to Gaea's realm.

Upon Persephone's verdant spreads,

Aphrodite bestowed me, 

lambent chalice of celestial longing 

abrim with divine dreams,

upon this fragrant Temple of Chloris 

where the Horae bless

the Goddess and her fruit.

Fair Iris' jewels meld into purest white

in my soul's palette, 

deepening to gilded alabaster 

beneath Apollo's resplendence,

alchemised into nacred silver stippled

with Asteria's brush by the

pearly glow of Selene's archway.

The Spirit's merging with Elysium's light 

I betoken, journeying forward 

into the Circle, my earthly path aligned 

with its Seasons. 

My flame shall grow into the breadth 

of the distant blue, 

spreading into the horizon, 

where Truth sings of Star and Rill, 

of Lark and Sky,

© 2016 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: THE BLESSED DAMOZEL (edited)

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

OAK II

My ancient rings are still this Season.
Silence echoes in my heart,
through my green blood
into the wan, wistful wind of Dawn,
beckoning to pure sounds 
lost to this Age,
to one who saw with all her being
past form and front into Light;
she knew that she knew naught, 
for her kind be ever rooted in Knowing,
their thoughts and words blossoms
of the deepest Wisdom 
they glean from earth and sky.
Before her grace, 
the Path carved its grooves and curves, 
for she sought its stretches
with her first steps. Her blood sang
the song of Life's River, 
whose strains conduct worthy spirits 
to Truth's threshold,
where Beauty apportions Vision
to souls who would fulfil Her mission.
Such She calls betimes 
to a greater Birth, to journey back 
to the Beginning. 
And here I bide to tell her tale to all who
pilgrimage to my sanctum, 
weary of man's gilded dominion 
of ire and fear, seeking the music 
of green harps and fluid lutes, 
heeding Polaris' wordless call to worship.

© 2016 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: 500px.com

REFRAIN

A broken note, a whisper and a sigh 

melded in strange harmony 

in the eventide rain, 

a bittersweet trio of Meteor, Twilight 

and grey-white Cloud

amid buttercups, dog violets 

and weeping daisies.

The woods listened, my sisters,

as our mellifluence

watered roots and boughs;

Summer breezes bore our souls' 

offering upon scented staves 

to faraway verdant havens, 

to spirits forsaken as our own,

their heartstrings tuned to a minor key,

seeking Joy's rhythm and colours

in breathing forests, in Nature's shrines

of Mercy and Peace, 

where Earth's own heartbeat 

chimes the hour.

Night enfolded Twilight,

Cloud merged with our Mother,

and I hover upon the fringes

of humankind's realm,

fearful of man's pathway of gold

toward perishment. 

My steps trace Earth's silver song 

to the dark woodland, sisters, 

where our refrain of a broken note, 

a whisper and a sigh echoes yet.

© 2016 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: MUSIC

Source: www.flickr.com

Artist: Élisabeth Sonrel

MEMORIES III

Here, our veins clung to

Earth and Flow,

upon this treeless plain 

that mourns 

our unseasonable passing.

A wrathful Tempest's 

dance of death 

rent our green branches,

its viscid steps 

ground our buds into 

sorrow's secret womb 

burrowed into barrenness,

now aswell with phantasms, 

with chimera 

of forbidding shape and

volant shadows that raise 

our fading flames 

into dark animation

as we fall through spaces 

where stars once pulsed.

Here, I drank of the storm's 

inexorable Rage, 

swearing an ageless oath

to the blackened Sky 

and the craven Moon, 

now jubilant, now affrighted,

her enraptured pallor

cowering beyond 

his brooding grey bastions 

that parted ever and anon,

unveiling her deathly glow

that flecked their grim granite 

with plumed marble.

I devoured the savage spirit,

that it may raze 

the baneful green within, 

that it may birth

no more tumult, save the 

maelstrom in my blood,

thenceforth to be subsumed 

into my soul's plains.

© 2016 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: A LADY IN THE MOONLIGHT (edited)
Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Félix Resurrección Hidalgo

DREAM III

Through budding portals, my spirit

wanders to the green pool 

of our childhood Springs, sister, 

to the vibrant world 

of the woodland's liquid heart 

yet ringing in dreams

with echoes of the Joy that crowns

life's tenderest Season.

Waters that shall anon return 

to the thirsty blue hold discourse

with tomorrow's rain,

with late April's fluid arms that shall 

cradle their emerald treasures, 

our memories of innocence.

Upon these ripples, we rode the Moon,

made landfall amid rushes and

dew-kissed lily pads, 

berthed upon grassy banks 

when hope's tides grew too immense 

for wings that had long beaten 

to sombre rhythms. 

A displaced seed of Earth merges with

watered light this Dawn,

its dying germ to nourish the water lily's 

roots, to rise into this Springtide's 

radiance upon her alabaster throat,

as the God's golden rays elevate 

the lightless Moon into her silvern realm 

in an eternal ritual of grace and renewal. 

The Circle breathes, sister,

and therein, you live.

© 2016 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: POOL IN THE WOODS

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: George Inness