POEM FOR A FLOWER / by Olivia Pirie-Griffiths

Snippet of Laura Jones's 'Poppies 2012, oil on linen, 70 x 86 cm'

Snippet of Laura Jones's 'Poppies 2012, oil on linen, 70 x 86 cm'

Have you watched a flower grow?

have you watched from seed through sow?

watch the petals tumble out

watch them as they fan about

dancers on a ballroom stage

they move with grace and calm embrace

see the colours change from pink

to red with burns of orange ink

marvel as it stretches tall

toward the iridescent ball

the mighty sun, bringer of life!

god of love and war and strife!

 


Bringer of death its role as well

do not forget life comes in two

from night to day, from me to you

harmony can only be

when two things balance equally

like petals on a rose with thorns

or gentle deer with savage horns

 


and when the flower dies,

it will

don’t lament, there’s beauty still

beauty in the curling leaves,

fading colours

hungry bees

for life is growth and death and change

from clover through to mountain range

we are the stars, we are the sea

and when we die we are all three

the sun, the deep and all between

that dying flower is our Queen


watch her grow from birth to death

her beauty lies in changing breath.

~