Ode to a Timeflower

[J Strobridge]

This is for the lyrics file if someone could add it please!   (NB -
though I've added a note and a query at the end)



ODE TO A TIME FLOWER  (Calvert)

Your calyx hides a nectary of time
That with my fingers I could pluck as easily
As sounding strings to recite their chime,
And your most exquisite petals melt icily
In my palm.   To hold the flow of moments past
As carefully as I would my last
Few seconds left on Earth.  Would that be crime?
Or if I picked you just to see you turn
To crystalled pearl in my eyes and learn
How man is Angel on his way from slime.

Did heedless Eve think twice before she broke
The enjewelled fruit from its brittle stem.
Or the first man to reach out and stroke
The marijuana leaf, condemn
Himself for greed when harvesting
And burning such a golden thing.
As this dreaming poet who just then spoke
Of your sacredness, and is now prepared
To do exactly as he first declared
And make of his museful words a joke.

But not quite as easy after all
I find, as my fingers reach to grasp,
Your gleaming head to wrench from its tall
Transparent stalk, they refuse to clasp.
As did Pandora's eager hands hold still
At the thought of the box containing ill.
Or the stoned explorers of Medusa stall
For time not entered in their log
Before they dared the petrific fog
That holds them still in its timeless thrall.

************ a nectary of time
That with my fingers I could pluck as easily
As sounding strings to recite their chime,
And your most exquisite petals melt icily
In my palm.   To hold the flow of moments past
As carefully as I would my last
Few seconds left on Earth.  Would that be crime?
Or if I picked you just to see you turn
To crystalled pearl in my eyes and learn
How man is Angel on his way from slime ....

(Robert Calvert from 'Centigrade 232')
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Notes:

1)  I've typed it exactly as it appears in the book (and as spoken on
his reading of it).    Whether it exactly matches the Harlow 74 tape
I'm honestly not sure.

2)  There is an intro in the book which might explain the poem somewhat
-   I'll add it below.   I assume it's sourced from a sci-fi story.
Does anyone recognise it?   It sounds Bradbury-esque

"As he carried the flower back on to the terrace, it began to sparkle and
deliquesce, the light trapped within the core at last released......
  Raising his head, Axel peered over the wall again.   Only the farthest
rim of the horizon was lit by the sun, and the great throng, which
before had stretched almost a quarter of the way across the plain, had
now receded to the horizon, the entire concourse abruptly flung back in
a reversal of time, and appeared to be stationary."

jill

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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at castle.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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