Eurydice
I
So you have swept me back,
I who could have walked with the live souls
above the earth,
I who could have slept among the live flowers
at last;
so for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I am swept back
where dead lichens drip
dead cinders upon moss of ash;
so for your arrogance
I am broken at last,
I who had lived unconscious,
who was almost forgot;
if you had let me wait
I had grown from listlessness
into peace,
if you had let me rest with the dead,
I had forgot you
and the past.
II
Here only flame upon flame
and black among the red sparks,
streaks of black and light
grown colourless;
why did you turn back,
that hell should be reinhabited
of myself thus
swept into nothingness?
why did you glance back?
why did you hesitate for that moment?
why did you bend your face
caught with the flame of the upper earth,
above my face?
what was it that crossed my face
with the light from yours
and your glance?
what was it you saw in my face?
the light of your own face,
the fire of your own presence?
What had my face to offer
but reflex of the earth,
hyacinth colour
caught from the raw fissure in the rock
where the light struck,
and the colour of azure crocuses
and the bright surface of gold crocuses
and of the wind-flower,
swift in its veins as lightning
and as white.
III
Saffron from the fringe of the earth,
wild saffron that has bent
over the sharp edge of earth,
all the flowers that cut through the earth,
all, all the flowers are lost;
everything is lost,
everything is crossed with black,
black upon black
and worse than black,
this colourless light.
IV
Fringe upon fringe
of blue crocuses,
crocuses, walled against blue of themselves,
blue of that upper earth,
blue of the depth upon depth of flowers,
lost;
flowers,
if I could have taken once my breath of them,
enough of them,
more than earth,
even than of the upper earth,
had passed with me
beneath the earth;
if I could have caught up from the earth,
the whole of the flowers of the earth,
if once I could have breathed into myself
the very golden crocuses
and the red,
and the very golden hearts of the first saffron,
the whole of the golden mass,
the whole of the great fragrance,
I could have dared the loss.
V
So for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I have lost the earth
and the flowers of the earth,
and the live souls above the earth,
and you who passed across the light
and reached
ruthless;
you who have your own light,
who are to yourself a presence,
who need no presence;
yet for all your arrogance
and your glance,
I tell you this:
such loss is no loss,
such terror, such coils and strands and pitfalls
of blackness,
such terror
is no loss;
hell is no worse than your earth
above the earth,
hell is no worse,
no, nor your flowers
nor your veins of light
nor your presence,
a loss;
my hell is no worse than yours
though you pass among the flowers and speak
with the spirits above earth.
VI
Against the black
I have more fervour
than you in all the splendour of that place,
against the blackness
and the stark grey
I have more light;
and the flowers,
if I should tell you,
you would turn from your own fit paths
toward hell,
turn again and glance back
and I would sink into a place
even more terrible than this.
VII
At least I have the flowers of myself,
and my thoughts, no god
can take that;
I have the fervour of myself for a presence
and my own spirit for light;
and my spirit with its loss
knows this;
though small against the black,
small against the formless rocks,
hell must break before I am lost;
before I am lost,
hell must open like a red rose
for the dead to pass.
poem by Hilda Doolittle
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Turn a light on, turn a different light on now
Turn a light on, turn a different light on
Turn a light on, turn a different light on now!
Oh why does she water them, paper flowers?
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song performed by by Live
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The Reaper And The Flowers
There is a Reaper whose name is Death,
And, with his sickle keen,
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
And the flowers that grow between.
``Shall I have nought that is fair?'' saith he;
``Have nought but the bearded grain?
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,
I will give them all back again.''
He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,
He kissed their drooping leaves;
It was for the Lord of Paradise
He bound them in his sheaves.
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The Reaper said, and smiled;
``Dear tokens of the earth are they,
Where he was once a child.
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And saints, upon their garments white,
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With the dwellings of men round my resting place spread,
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poem by Elizabeth Margaret Chandler from Poetical Works (1836)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Grave
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Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors,
And the brown earth bleached white at the edge of his gravestone.
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When the wars of our nation did beckon,
A man barely twenty did answer the calling.
Proud of the trust that he placed in our nation,
Hes gone,
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And the rain fell like pearls on the leaves of the flowers
Leaving brown, muddy clay where the earth had been dry.
And deep in the trench he waited for hours,
As he held to his rifle and prayed not to die.
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As guns and grenades blasted sharp through the air.
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He crouched ever lower, ever lower with fear.
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Ill cover myself with the mud and the earth.
Ill cover myself! I know Im not brave!
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The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors,
And the brown earth bleached white at the edge of his gravestone.
Hes gone.
song performed by by Don McLean
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Universal Flowers
All all
Trees are
Earth flowers...
Wonder of
Green...
Making trees
Is
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A unversel flowers...
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Life Giving Force
the earth is a bouquet of flowers
it bears good news
adam bears good news
adam is a bouquet flowers
he is earth exemplified
life giving force of earth
which inch of earth has
not really teemed with life?
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Reality
Here on earth we see destruction
It has gone to far
We must change for new directions
Use your mind or fall
See through the past what we have done
Disaster soon will come
Hell after life or hell on this earth
Will we be rebirthed
Reality !
Time is short years are counted
Generations lost
See the truth ! We are hunted
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See through the past what we have done
Disaster soon will come
Hell after life or hell on this earth
Will we be rebirthed
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You must hear the calls
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Will we be rebirthed
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We must gather now for a future instead of hell
song performed by by Zonata
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Earth And Sun
Darkness surrounded the earth,
No sign of life,
Nothing could be seen.
Suddenly shining stars appeared,
Earth received the light from th sun,
And there started the life.
Beautiful the earth looked,
With living organisms on it,
And it was noticed because of the sun's light.
Larger the sun grew as days passed,
Burned the earth with no mercy,
And at last earth itself was eaten by the sun.
poem by Melam Tashi Tamang
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Nine One One.
A cold wind blows in downtown Manhattan,
A blue sky dawn has risen and past
But this day is different, it started but won't end
It will stay in minds and souls forever.
A million tears will fall, some wiped, some not,
A wave of sorrow casts a shadow high
Beneath the dust of hell on earth
Yet in this darkest hour a light is seen.
Stare into this light, be still and listen well,
For in such chaos and such terror
This light will bring you home.
Home unto the hearts that yearn your presence.
For land and sea may alter,
Paths may cross or even disappear,
Lives may lose the final battle bravely fought.
But the light stays eternal. Believe in the light.
poem by Dave James
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A Monsoon Precursor
till then, the earth
was choked in
sweltering heat
from nowhere
gathered swirls
of wind in a wink
and blew away light
thick black clouds
descended with the
darkness that so far
hid behind light
the clouds reached
the earth in thunderous
urgency of a lover home
after long wanderings
between flashes of light
the thick clouds rolled
down to make love
to earth in total darkness
in a flash i saw
the earth lying smug
and shining like
a pearl bathed…
satiated, she threw up
her unique perfume…
10may2009
03.10hrs
poem by Indira Babbellapati
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Flowers are earth's prayers
the flowers are earth's
thanksgiving prayers to the Almighty
if wind is earth's music
the flowers are sweet choruses
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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A vision
I lost the love of heaven above,
I spurned the lust of earth below,
I felt the sweets of fancied love
And hell itself my only foe.
I lost earth's joys but felt the glow
Of heaven's flame abound in me
Till loveliness and I did grow
The bard of immortality.
I loved but woman fell away
I hid me from her faded fame,
I snatched the sun's eternal ray
And wrote till earth was but a name
In every language upon earth,
On every shore, o'er every sea,
I give my name immortal birth
And kept my spirit with the free.
poem by John Clare
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