BOON

Twilight descends with the swiftness

of a dream; its beauty her

shrouded heart does not see, nor the

scintillating arch on high,

Heaven's own coronet curved athwart

the looming purple range.

Anon the music fades, its dominion the

dark now gluts. Shadows 

veil starry beams, the wind grows mute,

as evensong ends. Empty

words emanate from weary throats that

scarce speak light.

A lonely flower lapped in stillness, shorn

of lightness, its beauty stoic, 

bewildering, as dead leaves in a gale, her

haunted journey she makes, 

as a spectral visitant wanders thro' a sea

of misty, sightless shapes. 

Voices in the woods, liquid forms in the

lake, eyeless apparitions of

her solitude, these are her companions.

All around her they cluster in

softest blackness, dark and discarnate,

their succour warm, palpable.

Beloved faces emerge from the ashes of

her dreams. In their distant

spaces she awaits the sleep that would

overcome breath, the sacred

silence that would enfold her, uncloak

ancient star trails 'pon her soul.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: WATER WILLOW

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

PROVIDENCE

The light alone moves this dawn.
Spring breathes softly;
by her own beauty spellbound,
she smiles into the lake.

Seafoam skies peer through the 
fragrant floral fretwork,
sequins of turquoise light linger
upon my dark locks.

Alas, I am unworthy of this crown,
great goddess! Your riches
enslave my senses, yet, Silence is
the season of my soul.

The irises look askance upon me,
these deities that distil  
rainbows from rain, conjure rarest
perfumes from dark dirt.

Could they construe my disquiet?
Such is inwrought in my
spirit; my steps it hinders, my pale
fingers causes to falter.

Words ride the wind with butterflies
and bees. My parchment
shall remain bare, for they now seek
vernal vellums and hues.

Notes fly from my quill, ere I could
tether them to staves.
They would merge with the spume,
melodise with the waves.

Yet, I smile thro' my tears, for they go
to serve the worthiest Scribe
and Melodist. Gaea would limn her own
blooming this glorious morn.

The Muses attend her, as with Chloris
she allies. In divine verse
and tunes shall I revel, in worship of 
her find joyful redemption.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: kaifineart.com

Artist: John William Godward

EASTER LILY

Angels of Earth, of purest 

radiance wrought,

the chancel you brighten,

your light I sought.

Ancient swathes you

bedeck, Gethsemane's hill,

where the Good Shepherd 

bowed to Heaven's will.

From His sorrow you rose

for man to cheer,

for the pilgrim to guide

thro' hope and fear.

His resurrection shall you

glad proclaim,

all eager hearts touch with

Eastertide's flame.

Your perfume in wreathes

to the skies ascends,

woods and fields hallows,

Nature's own incense.

Chime, fragrant bells,

petalled heralds of birth,

Spring's message bear

to ev'ry child on Earth.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: www.pinterest.com

EYE

A cluster of red-rimmed orbs
admonishes me from
the depths of a looking glass,
an aggregate of Cyclops,
intaglios of Tartarus on
my too thin skin.

Every gasping, gaping gash
gazes in wonderment
through light years at greater
eyes, its pangs sparkling
in each liquescent crystal.

In these swathes of ancient
beauty, in this distant
dominion of divinities littered 
with many-eyed monsters'
childish prayers, our seers
sought the Infinite. 

I count my blessings, these 
wounds that see farther
without, deeper within, than 
the sighted globes my mother's
womb seeded with life.

Elsewhere, in this wreckage
of sinew and bone
dancing upon the edge of a
carousel of blades,
gleams the locus of the Eye
that witnessed the
birth of Truth.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: edicion-cys.com

Artist: Vladimir Kush

DREAMS

Forlornness....I revel in the mellifluent
greyness of its hollow sound,
a resonance of dark beauty, restoring,
familiar, as is all true beauty.
Is it music to my ears alone?

I was born into this symphony of slate
clouds, cold, raw fog and dying
seeds interred in yesterday's ashes.
This desolation is my sacrament.

Leaden drops pound the melting snow,
as she rips pale buds from tender
green apices, rends stamens and pistils 
from the Season's first lilies. 
Why do you smile so, mother?

Words could scarcely limn the weight
of this phantasm. Each Spring, it settles
upon my chest as a pall of the dead, its
moist, yielding softness melds with
my skin as bloodied pinions into still water.

A lonely child mourns your unseen flames,
little broken lamps. Forlorn grey
sounds of ripping, severing, haunt her
dreams, as the hollow clatter of mother's
secateurs on the white wooden stool.

The burden of words unclaimed lurks in
my bones, of sobs unheard, cries
disregarded, meanings unconstrued.
My old soul shall never know
profound slumber.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: LILIES
Source: www.liveinternet.ru
Artist: Gustav Pope

SPRING

Life blossoms all around me; primordial

colours of the Sun dance upon

my fingers, spirited steps born of pride in

Nature's artwork grace this oasis

of birth and incandescent song.

Vaughan Williams' lark ascends to meet

yellow wagtails' marigold notes

in my own varicoloured safe haven.

Glorious Spring! Every nook and cranny

holds poems waiting to be set down.

Garlands of pink cassia take their last bow,

lace cool, green carpets this day,

their interim resting place, for they are

fated to sustain Summer's growth.

Nestlings, puppies gamboling on the grass,

growing hives, budding verse, promise.....

Myriad bleeding blooms rest upon frozen

mountain slopes in a faraway land.

Myriad gardens in faraway lands will not

know Spring this year.

Far away.

Life has chosen me, I know not why.

In a while, I shall deadhead my coral roses.

© 2015 Lily's Verse
Lilium Candidum

Image: ALMOND BLOSSOM

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

CHLORIS

Beauteous Nymph, consort of Zephyrus,
with eternal Spring his bride he dow'rd,
first seeds 'pon Earth's vastness she scattered,
by her fragrant breath, hills and plains flow'rd.

Blossoming, fruition, her dominion,
o'er gardens, orchards and fields she reigns,
her perfumed riches the Horae display,
man's form and anima she sustains.

From her ev'ry spirant roses burst forth,
'neath her tread clover and daisies grow,
honey makers to meadows she beckons,
for their sweet gifts 'pon man to bestow.

Her bounty 'pon the Graces she confers,
the gods' tresses her chaplets adorn,
blooms from Hyacinth's blood she conjured,
as Apollo his beloved mourned.

Earth now wakens, Persephone awaits;
Helios returns, the frost departs;
Great Zephyrus the thirsting ground drenches,
warmth and freshness 'pon the soil casts.

In fecund spreads Carpus' spirit stirs,
Chloris, Nature's verdant robes caress;
your grace 'pon crops and vines show'r,
our homes each season with plenty bless.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: GATHER YE ROSEBUDS
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Artist: John William Waterhouse