A Gathering of Poetry

It’s the 3rd Thursday of the month and I remembered (late but I did remember) to join the Gathering of Poetry set. I’ve been thinking about snowdrops ever since I saw Sarah post them yesterday, hence my choice of a poem to share.

Snowdrops

So long trying to paint them, failing
to paint their shadows on the concrete path.

They are less a white than a bleaching out of green.
If you go down on your knees

and tilt their petals towards you
you’ll look up under their petticoats

into a hoard of gold
like secret sunlight and their

three tiny striped green awnings that lend a
kind of frantic small-scale festive air.

It is the first day of February
and I nearly picked a bunch for you,

my dying friend, but remembered in time
how you prefer to leave them

to wither back into the earth;
how you tell me it strengthens the stock.

—Paula Meehan, from Painting Rain (2009)