Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Magnolia, Dying

Alas. The Romantics would love this: from dewy bloom to the throes of death and rebirth (via a seed pod). The embodiment of the Sublime.

Every day you play with the light of the universe.
Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water.
You are more than this white head that I hold tightly
as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands.

---Pablo Neruda, translated by W. S. Merwin

This is how the flower ends, from bud to bloom to pod. I'm not sure it'll actually form a seed pod, since neither bloom is still attached to the tree, but I'll keep them long enough to find out--or until they start getting smelly.

1 comment:

Prairie Gothic said...

I love the colors on this stage of the magnolias best.