A Bouquet of Reality – A Poem

‘Tis often that we reach the end
Of life’s short road and think
That many things have sped us by,
Faster than you could blink.

We never seem to pause and look
Down at the wheels beneath
That bore us through this hectic life,
And oft become a wreath

Of flowers wrapt in memories,
Of ivies and more such.
If e’er we stopped in reflection
We’d really find that much

Of what we’ve dragged to where we are
Upon a glance can be
Gathered into a mixed bouquet
Of what?  Reality.

For these are truly nothing else
Than mine own fav’rite things,
Like wine upon a windowsill,
Or silent, golden wings

That flare from angels up on high
Above a great stone church,
Or roiling plumes of incense pine
That scent the dove’s own perch.

I see within this wild bouquet
A spattering of rain
That’s swept across some cobblestones
Or filtered through some grain

That’s growing in a sun-filled field
Somewhere beyond a summer,
When apples fall through rust-red leaves,
And splash into a river.

I pull aside a leaf of years
And see a motley cluster
Of little, warm remembrances
That I had with my mother

When she would draw me to her lap
And in the light would show
Me how the sun through prisms free
Would split the fair rainbow.

A heady group of posies bring
The thoughts I grabbed as I
Did dream and stare with wond’ring awe
At how each race did ply

His trade and culture ‘mong his friends,
Beneath a garish sun
When clouds are dry and sands are deep
And water does not run,

To places where the ice does form
And freeze the waterfalls
Into vast sheets of glitt’ring snow
That rise as great blue walls.

A single drop on marigold
Brings to my memory
The greening deeps of oceans strange
And curling waves of sea.

The more I dig into this sweet
And fragrant pile of thoughts,
The more I find the little things
That I should never ought

Have let slip by my wand’ring gaze
A-fixed to all ahead,
And ignored all the flowers that
Were blooming round instead.

Header images CC Lorenzoclick, Peter & Ute Grahlmann

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Dominic de Souza

Geeks over epics, mystics, science, the angelic, & movies. I am riveted by the Catholic frontier between faith, science, and history. I converted from radical traditionalism by a strange route – through archaeology. That led me to quantum physics, psychoanalysis and mythology, evolution and angels, and our Holy Father Pope Francis. I believe it’s important to read widely, from all sides, and to celebrate the good, true, and beautiful wherever it is found. See more posts
Get my occasional post in your inbox!

The Unknown Dark & the Naming of the First King

The Unknown Dark & the Naming of the First King

Winifred eased herself down onto a pillowed bench. More like collapsed, she thought, biting back a gasp. She was heavily pregnant, and exhausted from being on her feet all day, wearing the heavy brocade, silk cloaks, and stiff silver crown. She had a half hour to...

read more
Once Upon an End: How the Seeker found a new name

Once Upon an End: How the Seeker found a new name

He had reached the End of the world… and even come back from it. There he had expected to find monsters with torturous tentacles splayed on cliffs, or perhaps bleak beasts of shadow that filled the horizon with occult mists, or perhaps a spiralling hole into heaven’s emptiness. But he didn’t find that.

read more