Soft Green Flood

I have grown tired of sorrow and human tears;

Life is a dream in the night a fear among fears,

A naked runner lost in a storm of spears

I have grown tired of rapture and love's desire;

Love is a flaming heart, and its flames aspire

Till they cloud the soul in the smoke of a windy fire.

I would wash the dust of the world in a soft green flood;

Here between sea and sea in this fairy wood,

I have found a delicate wave-green solitude.

Here, in the fairy wood, between sea and sea,

I have heard the song of a fairy bird in a tree

And the peace that is not in the world has flown to me.

~Arthur Symons

Something I've noticed about poetry is that, it takes time to get to know a poem - like a great piece of classical music - like an exciting new acquaintance.

A year or so ago, I started memorizing poetry on my nightly, hour long walk. I had originally chosen the poem up above because I could relate to some degree with what I perceived the poet saying. I was weary and feeling very rumpled, indeed - coated from the dustiness of traveling in this world. But I must confess, I was a bit confounded at what seemed like the very earthy and genuine beginning of the poem and what seemed like the 'puff of fluff' ending. It took a couple of days of tromping around the loop to start to really gain some insight.

You see, life had contained several unpleasantly painful and unfair moments and I felt very outside of my comfort zone - out of the mundane - changing - not who I was before and not where I was going to be - really, 'between sea and sea'. The normal heart-comforts of this world didn't seem to reach me there and I felt, in fact, like I'd suddenly found myself very removed in a strange and earthy, unearthly.... 'fairy wood' with a 'delicate wave-green solitude' wrapping around my heart.

And, as I considered the last two stanzas and journeyed down this gravel-edged early spring road, where the dirt and mould and decaying parts of winter were still so evident, I saw the fragile, tentative green pushing up and through the mess and I considered....

I considered that in a month's time, the detritus from all the storms of winter would turn into a humusy soil and it would be overwhelmed by a soft wave-green flood - the lush green of new growth and summer and everything alive!

and that is where I find myself today.

(In my life, I mean. Outside, it's only just squishy, messy mud season all over again! =P)

And, because great minds, apparently, think alike.... or it's spring.... ooor, because it's Saint Patrick's Day on Sunday ;-), Mary's word prompt at the dear Little Red House is 'green'. =)

xo