Wild Plum
They are unholy who are born
To love wild plum at night,
Who once have passed it on a road
Glimmering and white.
It is as though the darkness had
Speech of silver words,
Or as though a cloud of stars
Perched like ghostly birds.
They are unpitied from their birth
And homeless in men's sight,
Who love, better than the earth,
Wild plum at night.
Orrick Johns, in The New Poetry: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Verse in English. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1923
(OK, truthful admission here, the photo was taken last Saturday in the daytime; the night-time effect is compliments of Adobe. But my admiration for the poem, and for the effect of wild plum in the moonlight, is unchanged. And the scent! the poet didn't mention the scent!
If any flowers remain tomorrow after the winds of tonight's cold front blow through, and if it isn't cloudy and rainy, I may try for a night-time photograph. Too bad I didn't think of it sooner, during the last few balmy clear full-moon nights.)
Labels: orrick johns, poem, wild plum
posted by AbigailM | 11:23 PM
2 Comments:
I just wanted to let you know that I stumbled on your jewelry blog in a Google search, and then followed your link to this blog. I enjoyed both. It's a small world...I too am a naturalist who makes jewelry and draws (love your cardinal & quartz). And my family is from Texas. In fact, if I deduced from your blog correctly, it looks like you are associated with Denton, TX in some way. Denton was named after my 6x great-grandfather John B. Denton, circuit preacher (among other things.) Neat!
Small world indeed! Yes, I grew up in Denton, where John B.'s grave is on the Courthouse Square. I happened to meet someone from the museum there and mentioned getting your comment. She said they have a registry of Denton descendants linked on this page, in case you aren't listed and want to be. http://www.dentoncounty.com/dentondays/
Where are you, and what sort of jewelry do you make?
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