Dennis Lee – Tigerlily
It is not far to darkness. The tigerlilies flare
and carol beauty, fixed in searing ecstasy,
and flicker. Patterns hold, but lilies glow
like embers, each to fading each, and die.
And flowing lilies whisper through your veins;
and tigers, lurking agelong in my bone,
awake, and trumpet out eternity
and crumble. Love, can vision comfort pain?
Bone of the world is burning lily: veins
are teeming with the tigerflash of truth.
Our ashes, embers, wakes and exits cling
and clutter, like a shroud or heavy wreath.
O tigerlily, men make Christ your name:
O, roar in mildness, bud in darkling flame.
85:3 pg.4 (1961)