AnthonyHentschel's list

About

To whomsoever it may concern:

Not really sure what your site is about but I thought you might be interested in this poem - Carpe Diem - as it contains that word - uliginose.

Sincerely, Anthony Hentschel

CARPE DIEM

I’ve found no use for the word uliginose, meaning ‘growing in muddy places’. William Rees-Mogg

Love affairs don’t last forever -

Conceit spawned by deceitful elves -

Like shards of ice they merely linger,

Drifting like continental shelves towards disintegration and repose.

We human beings, dew-drops,

Await evaporation while the sun

Momentarily transmutes liquidity

To lustrous gems, until, undone, vapour's genius must disclose.

Storm clouds build, accumulate, cascade;

The Vale of Soul-Making resounds

To laughing streams and raging cataracts

That wash weary mountains down… that poets might compose.

We fail to seize the fleeting moment -

A skipping pebble skimming down a stream

That hesitates, then sinks from sight forever -

Lost in waters whirling like dreams drowsy minds weave for clothes.

We fail to feel the breasting fir-cone,

To clasp it with delicious hands,

To let slide, healing, soothing fingers

Before plunging naked in those beds modest waters daren’t expose.

We fail to live, revering each day wholly,

But rather, gluttons, bloated at a feast,

Pick half-heartedly, consuming vital hours,

Unconscious of the beast devoured… the sun's death throes.

We fail to listen, to surrender all to birdsong,

To relish pulse and swelling cadence sweet,

To seek, suck and, yes, savour sound - fruit

Dancing feet pound to windfall rhythms until hot flesh glows.

Delight is incompatible with stasis;

Death's dance, ballet, soft-shoe-shuffle, twist,

Propels another generation forward, to cherish nightingales -

That joy Keats kissed before his lips exhaled a blood-red rose.

Stars glimpsed within the flaming firmament

Flare majestically about some

Mystery beyond acclamation - members of but one spinning galaxy,

Just one! while countless crystals swirl… ephemeral snows.

Who would be bound by Eternity?

Adamantine form spells death -

The rose that withers also dances,

Each sacred corpse releases breath – fertile, fecund, uliginose.

Anthony Hentschel