Tether us to a Lily or to a Rose –
And bid us Diet on the Dew inside²
Out of her Bosum the Blosme Sprong³
Some Flowers come in a Human Form⁴
A Gardenia’s Breath can revive a Homeland⁵
If I cease to bring a Rose upon a Festal Day –
‘Tis because Beyond the Rose I’m Called away⁶
Full many a Flower is born to Blush Unseen –
And Waste its Sweetness on the Desert Air⁷
The Red Rose Cries: “She is Near, she is
Near,” and the White Rose Weeps: “She
Is Late,” the Larkspur Listens: “I Hear, I
Hear,” and the Lily Whispers: “I Wait”⁸
People, who aren’t Kin to themselves,
Shall be Kin to Mulleins and Daisies⁹
Where the Bee Sucks, there Suck
I – in the Cowslip’s Bell I Lie¹⁰
¹ Audre Lorde, Recreation
² Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
³ Anonymous c. 14th, Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose
⁴ Mary Gaitskill, Folk Song
⁵ Mahmoud Darwish tr. Amira El-Zein, Poetic Regulations
⁶ Emily Dickinson, If I Should Cease to Bring a Rose
⁷ Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard
⁸ Lord Tennyson, Come into the Garden, Maud
⁹ Wendell Berry, Window Poems
¹⁰ William Shakespeare, The Tempest