Blackthorn, Celandine
For Jeremy Hooker on
his 80th birthday
- Seán Street (U.K.)
Sisters of a season,
dark bark, white, gold:
flower of the Swallow,
the bewitching tree
driving darkness
from reborn fields.
Words whispered
through the wood
growing clearer
with each day’s
acquisition
of new light.
Blackthorn, Celandine,
the Cherry in the wings
waiting for showtime.
Seen or not, you know
they’re there. Naming
invokes them:
word, tree, flower,
the space around them,
the shapes plant and word,
tree and poem make.
Sisters of the season.
Hope springs’ kin.