Winter Rose

At the end of our morning walk along the Narrows, we stopped in the NBG (Narrows Botanical Garden) in front of our place, and Nicole took some photos of the single rose left. I immediately thought of  the opening poem in Hermetic Definitions, a title the initials of which name its author: HD.

Winter Rose by Nicole Peyrafitte

Why did you come
to trouble my decline?
I am old ( I was old till you came);

the reddest rose unfolds,
(which is ridiculous
in this time, this place,

unseemly, impossible,
even slightly scandalous),
the reddest rose unfolds;

(nobody can stop that,
no immanent threat from the air,
not even the weather,

blighting our summer fruit),
the reddest rose unfolds,
(they’ve got to take that into account).

Share

Tweet