The Wildflowers

Spring by Day and Night

A poem for my favorite (is it possible to choose a favorite?) desert penstemon flowers, the spring-flowering Penstemon parryi.

Unfortunately I have no voiceover for this post. My voice and my laptop mic are both temporarily out of commission, I’m afraid. So this is read-only!

To Penstemon Flowers at Dusk

Your blossoms, glowing pinker than the west,
breathe out their beating joy as who knows best
how beautiful and passionate the spring–
withal a fugitive and fleeting thing.
Swift days of colibríes dance your stems
and nights of hawkmoths, silent powdered gems
that dust your petals, drift into the night–
wings upon wings whirl round you in their flight.
The joy, again the joy of this sweet time,
your rose-hued petals with a curve sublime
to shape the spring breeze, wrap it round their throats
to summon every flickering wing that floats
on soft spring air. Each glitters in the sun
or glimmers in the gloaming. Make each one
a messenger of joy, of spring delight.
Sleep sweetly on your stately stems tonight,
and draw the spring into your rich embrace.
Dark falls, I cannot see each face
but just a faint rose glow round stems of gray.
Sleep softly, spring shall live another day.

---

As I implied in the first poem, the waxing moon shines so brightly now that one can see colors by its light alone.

Beneath the full moon
the brittlebrush flowers gleam
amber at midnight

---

Like a fresh fragrance
the light bursts through my window
stop and breathe the moon

---