Poem
Jean Bleakney
WINTER SOLSTICE
WINTER SOLSTICE
WINTER SOLSTICE
Wiry and headstrong in life, so in death,the bleached stems of harebells
- unflappable as marram grass -
outstare this sun, these easterlies.
At every branchlet’s pendant tip,
the vestigial ribs of a seed capsule
(bell-like, a birdcage in miniature)
accumulate and vitrify a water droplet.
Hence this platinum-wired gem tree
gathering December light, dispensing it;
a crystal-chandelier Adventist
illuminating, galvanising, rather,
its weedy, slug-pearled patch
of lavender and fallen harebell seeds;
igniting, with each icy tug,
summer’s metaphorical touchpaper.
© 2003, Jean Bleakney
From: The Poet's Ivy
Publisher: Lagan Press,
From: The Poet's Ivy
Publisher: Lagan Press,
Jean Bleakney
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1956)
Jean Bleakney was born in Newry, Co. Down and now lives in Belfast where she works in a garden centre. She studied biochemistry at Queen’s University, Belfast, and only turned to writing in her 30s, after the birth of her children. Her developing passion for poetry coincided with a developing passion for horticulture – many of her poems concern themselves with plants and the symbolic associatio...
Poems
Poems of Jean Bleakney
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WINTER SOLSTICE
Wiry and headstrong in life, so in death,the bleached stems of harebells
- unflappable as marram grass -
outstare this sun, these easterlies.
At every branchlet’s pendant tip,
the vestigial ribs of a seed capsule
(bell-like, a birdcage in miniature)
accumulate and vitrify a water droplet.
Hence this platinum-wired gem tree
gathering December light, dispensing it;
a crystal-chandelier Adventist
illuminating, galvanising, rather,
its weedy, slug-pearled patch
of lavender and fallen harebell seeds;
igniting, with each icy tug,
summer’s metaphorical touchpaper.
From: The Poet's Ivy
WINTER SOLSTICE
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