if we could stay silent for years,
like spirits;
You, the ghost of the tangled garden--
me, the shade of the nightnoose stairway.
I would dance with no floor beneath my feet,
and you would be blue catmint coming closer
by only inches over the course of entire summers.
"You have beautiful eyes," everyone tells the two of us.
"Too often sad," we tell each other,
our voices soft as dust.
I would like to see if we could love each other this way--
just don't count on me when you've gone green
and I've gone gray,
withering even as you toss the rose, red and resplendent,
at my feet.
_________
 |
| catmint |
An existential love poem--not often one runs across those--and etched with a delicate brush on intellect and heart. The questions of love, sometimes even the observations, so often go unanswered...
ReplyDeletethat saint has got his hands full!
ReplyDeleteNow that's poetry. Wow.
ReplyDeleteA patron saint for clowns? That made me LOL.
Love the poem ... sitting here trying to come up with a common denominator for those who are watched over by Saint Genesius!
ReplyDeleteThis is so beautiful it hurts.
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely with an edge; perfect combination. I've read and re-read this poem just for the richness your words offer. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this, thanks
ReplyDeleteThis was sweet, and touching and wistful... And I loved every lingering word of it...
ReplyDeleteI didn't quite get the connection to St. Genesius (sorry for my denseness) and he seems to bless a pretty wide range of people.
As an aside, I did not think lawyers were watched over by a saint... what about the entire volumes of jokebooks (Written by comedians BTW) that assert they're Satans representatives? Conflict of interest I would say!
I love everything about this poem from the picture to the catmint and all the lovely words in between.
ReplyDeleteLawyers?
ReplyDeletedeeply moving.a love of unequal years?that's what the green and grey connotes to me.loved it.
ReplyDeleteSo poignant, the waiting...love the "voices soft as dust"........saddened by the withering as the rose finally lands at her feet. Like MZ says, so beautiful it hurts.
ReplyDeleteSpoke by one with only death to dance to one who may bloom again, the first rightly admits her love must end . . . but so beautifully the wish and so sadly the acknowledgement that I was compelled to look at this Saint again. This suggests another end to the Sleeping Beauty story when no kiss will revive.
ReplyDeleteHeart-twistingly eloquent !!
ReplyDeleteWell, this is a very dramatic poem, and I googled and found out catmint and roses are purrfect perennial partners. Love the last stanza..
ReplyDeleteBut HOW does this fit in with St. Genesius? Is it because they are "torturing" each other? :)
... they share a passion, in spite of themselves! ;) Thanks, Shay.
ReplyDeleteoh these colors! and i'm thinking about catmint being beautiful but invasive. but "nightnoose stairway" takes the cake, what a telling, real phrasing. as we like to say, i wish i had thought of that.
ReplyDeleteI am sometimes SO blue catmint. I have it in my Mission Garden, Shay. You would like it there. All the flora are "useful" plants... medicinal, herbal, culinary, aromatic, edible. Because I live in the desert, I had to create the right microclimate. I have over a dozen mint species, several marjorams and oreganos, three types of rosemary... the list goes on and on. You're invited to have tea with me, in the midst.
ReplyDelete"(T)he shade of the nightnoose stairway" is as fine a line as I've read in some time. The feel, the tone of this piece is more ethereal than most of your work I've read, ethereal too the point where it could run the risk of being cutesy--but the imagery is so vivid, so exquisite that there is no danger of the piece being too frothy or wispy. Damn fine work, in other words.
ReplyDelete