Moonlight Cupped in a Purple Flower: Poem- And Yet Again

This vivid poem by the Poet Laureate Esther Phillips is both teeming with striking imagery and deeply moving.

I love that it is sensitively written showing her understanding of our underlying needs. It is like a picture of a soul’s craving, unashamedly expressing both love and a desire to heal. Yet it is piqued with a hope unfounded and the eternal longing for the other:

“This wanting is not a nebulous thing;
it is the soul desiring its other self…” this perhaps is its theme.

–And Yet Again

Tonight I want to offer you
this moonlight cupped in a purple
flower; this chorus of crickets
holding no grudge against the day’s
dying. I want to lift the cool sweetness
of sour-grass under the night wind
and soothe the tautness in your face.
I want to tempt you away from your heroic
silence for joy that is free and foolish.
I want to weave these early stars
like a rope for you to hold
and make your way past your old
hurts, faiths crumbling like dust.
This wanting is not a nebulous thing;
it is the soul desiring its other self
where need knows no hindrance of words.

Now, only this longing, this reaching
yet again – in spite of.

Esther Phillips, Photo: Peepal Tree Press

The poem touches me with its melancholy – and yet it is strangely soothing – like a warm glove around the heart. 🙂

What do you think?

---

A Spanish Translation

Esta noche quiero ofrecerte

esta luz de luna acunada en una

flor morada; este coro de grillos

sin rencor hacia la muerte del día.

Quiero alzar la frescura fresca

del trébol bajo el viento nocturno

y calmar la tensión en tu rostro.

Quiero tentarte lejos de tu heroico

silencio por la alegría que es libre y absurda.

Quiero tejer estas estrellas tempranas

como una cuerda para que la sostengas

y puedas avanzar más allá de tus viejas

heridas, fe desmoronándose como polvo.

Este deseo no es algo nebuloso;

es el alma deseando su otro yo

donde la necesidad no conoce impedimentos de palabras.

Ahora, solo este anhelo, esta búsqueda
una vez más, a pesar de.

A universal poem, it was Barbados’ entry in The Written World a collaboration between the Scottish Poetry Library and BBC Radio to broadcast a poem from every nation in the London 2012 Olympics. It is from her work, The Stone Gatherer, Peepal Tree Press, 2009.