6.09.2016

Minnehaha's moccasin


SPIRIT-WOOD
                             i.m. Edward Lewis Peckham

Step lightly in my mother’s house,
whispered a tiny elf
named ELP – himself
a watercolorist (a yellow lady’s

slipper’s footprint left the forest
on this day).  Cypripedia
reginae – Minnehaha’s
moccasin – graced this wilderness

as well, making a pair for Joy
& Beauty (graces
almost three).  Time paces
seasoned out of winter, so employ

your dancing shoes, fiery Hiawatha –
roll like Polar Bear
around that pinpoint star,
sing like a loon, like your happy

father (Thalia-glad).  Nature
& Manitou join hands;
a Turtledove blends
sea-sounds, all about green Eire;

urn burials, gardens of Sirius
swim synchronizing
rhombs on monarch wings
(a rugged Paradise for ladybugs)...

one dance-call through spirit-wood
or jadestone flute
sows dreams of Camelot
(like waves of wheat around a vineyard).

6.9.16


*Note : Edward Lewis Peckham, Rhode Island artist and naturalist, painted a watercolor of Cypripedium parviflorum - Yellow Lady's Slipper - on this day in 1866, 150 years ago.  See illustration here from the Rhode Island Historical Society.

No comments: