Lizz Murphy - Poem 338: light flares ...

light flares yellow casts your wing in silver we both hover

Lizz Murphy - Poem 324: Lotus

LOTUS

Greet the break of day

I didn’t write a poem last night

Turtles swimming in the ocean

Words fallen to the bottom of the sea

Rabbits digging in the snow

I dive for pearls

Fair lady scoops up all the water 

scoop out shells

spreads it across the land

build middens from the empties

It rains on the lotus

and now it pours

the lotus blossoms

the ink runs

sends its roots deep into the mud

draws its own blooms

The wind blows to the north

I blot petals dry

to the south

blow on paper

lifts to the heavens

ink all over my hands

presses to the earth

dark smudges on my face

White cranes flash their wings

Nope - still no flashes of inspiration

the rabbits still digging in the snow

I dive and dig

as we say farewell at the end of the day

My muse sleeps on

The lines in italics are the moves in Lotus a T'ai Chi qigong form.

Lizz Murphy - Poem 177: Tulips

P.S. Cottier #9 Rare petals market

Rare petals market 

I don’t know the price of aspidistras*

Violets would make the investor blush

Roses are much safer than mere cash

Hebes are falling — watch out for the rush

It’s a koala market for eucalyptus

But a goanna market for wisteria

Jonquils have stolen the market’s trust —

It's a milder, unDutch, bulb hysteria

All in all, the selling of flowery vegetation

Will survive the aspidistras’ vague valuation

P.S. Cottier

 (*A quote from an assessment on Antiques Roadshow, 8.6.16)