Hibiscus flower
naked I wear one
in my hair.
– Basho
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Lessons in the Orchard by Carol Ann Duffy
An apple’s soft thump on the grass, somewhen
in this place. What was it? Beauty of Bath.
What was it? Yellow, vermillion, round, big, splendid;
already escaping the edge of itself,
like the mantra of bees,
like the notes of rosemary, tarragon, thyme.
Poppies scumble their colour onto the air,
now and there, here, then and again.
Alive-alive-oh,
the heart’s impulse to cherish; thus,
a woman petalling paint onto a plate –
cornflower blue –
as the years pressed out her own violet ghost;
that slow brush of vanishing cloud on the sky.
And the dragonfly’s talent for turquoise.
And the goldfish art of the pond.
And the open windows calling the garden in.
This bowl, life, that we fill and fill.
• Written to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Charleston festival www.charleston.org.uk.
Focus on bringing peace to your life
Of Molluscs by May Sarton
As the tide rises, the closed mollusc
Opens a fraction to the ocean’s food,
Bathed in its riches. Do not ask
What force would do, or if force could.
A knife is of no use against a fortress.
You might break it to pieces as gulls do.
No, only the rising tide and its slow progress
Opens the shell. Lovers, I tell you true.
You who have held yourselves closed hard
Against warm sun and wind, shelled up in fears
And hostile to a touch or tender word –
The ocean rises, salt as unshed tears.
Now you are floated on this gentle flood
That cannot force or be forced, welcome food
Salt as your tears, the rich ocean’s blood,
Eat, rest, be nourished on the tide of love.
(from Halfway To Silence, 1980)
(photo Rose Cook)
Peace is inside you, always
Approach The Soul
Approach the soul as a wild thing
with soft words and gentle tones
slowly
with patience and stillness.
Approach the soul as a wild thing
only then begin to hear
perpetual silence
with sweet accompaniment:
the twang of the breath
the music of the breath.
Approach the soul as a wild thing
with soft words and gentle tones
slowly
with patience and stillness.
Rose Cook
poems for peace 