an orchid overture said, Princess Haiku

a flower made of moonlight said, Princess Haiku

Riker's Island by Diane Dehler

                                                                                                

Riker’s Island is a public cemetery in New York where

inmates and the destitute of the city are buried.

Riker’s Island

On Rikers Island a

sloping field is set

aside for cremated

remains of those poor

and banished. 

Who perish

without the

cost of a funeral,

without provision

of mourning.

It is here

the poorest

of poor are

buried. Where

there is no coin.

 Simplicity of

wildflowers

adorns this

somber

paradise.

Here

sleeps a

newborn child

never touched

or held.

His cry

was a voice

unheard; rain in

the eye of a

ruined flower.

Queen Anne’s

lace, royal

and proud in

its grief stands

upright.

His birth

was a red

poppy that

shredded and

burned.

His death a first

tragedy given to

his mother.  A first

cycle through a

season of fire.

The mother knew

his promise was only

of sorrow. Memory

cremated into bone 

and bleached.

Sad purity of

infants that starve

and die before they

open cornflower

eyes.

Poverty

so primal

and unselective

devours people

& countries.

Poverty

belongs as

much to earth

as bone and

wheat.

Sorrow lives on

Rikers Island,

with the first and

most tender ash

given to earth.

Diane Dehler

First published in Artemis Journal, Spring 2014

Pearl Incantare, by Diane Dehler

Pearl Incantare

Her luminescence is an island of white slumber.

The girl believes pathos is a river that runs a course through stars.

I enter this painting, bring “I” to a place of sleep. Eyelids of the sky vanish. Eyes are the pearl.

She is dressed in lapis lazuli blue.

A flow of vulnerability floods the self.  She is me. You are her.

Secrets of our nature are revealed in her gaze.

The museum guard is unaware that I have unhooked the painting from history.

Slipped it slowly from the wall and hidden it in my soul.

She becomes a poem from my silence to a petal.

Flora fauna self, spring of all seasons.

Girl with the Pearl.

Johannes Vermeer, the sphinx of Delft was a magician

who conjured innocence:

Girl With A Pearl.

A pearl in her mouth.

Pearl teeth of the dream.

A petal, unpetaled from the flower of the fruit.

Poetry written with ultramarine ink etched into pale flesh.

Girl with a pearl, how she possesses me.

Diane Dehler

First published by Pirene’s Fountain, Fall/Winter 2013 issue 14.

ethereal pale orchid said, Princess Haiku

an orchid for your thought said, Princess Haiku

star flower in a moonlight garden said, Princess Haiku

Stars bloomed in my moonlight garden, heavy with petal and fragrant with breath.

a white peacock said, Princess Haiku

Charles Tomlinson Griffes was born 1884 at Elmira, New York and lived a quiet life until an early death at age 36. Griffes early developed an interest in the Far East and one of his favorite authors was Lafacadio Hearn, a kindred spirit in literature. "After he saturated himself with Hearn the young Griffes began to absorb all of the literature he could find on Persia, Hindustan, Japan and China. Though influenced by Debussy the White Peacock was inspired by a poem of William Sharp".

Guide to Listening:

"The music paints a garden on which a tropical sun bets relentlessly.  This garden is rich in blooming magnolia, honey flowers, multi colored poppies, and pomegranate; and in it "cream white and soft" struts a while peacock. A languorous melody paints the beauty of the vain creature as it moves through the garden. Glistening with a subdued glow, strange chords flow one into the other, picturing the lush growth and vivid colors of the garden..."

Excerpt from "The Story of One Hundred Symphonic Favorites," by Paul Grabbe.

Vermeer's Eyes by Diane Dehler

Vermeer’s Eyes

Vermeer’s eyes
given to her.
A girl with a pearl and more,
sky transparent… his voluminous
heart.

Passion spires…star streaks.

All the luminous.
All the first moment.
A girl caught in a weave of
possibility.

Fata Morgana.

Diane Dehler

a white orchid is a template of spirit said, Princess Haiku

So perfect is a white orchid it becomes possible to understand the madness that seizes people in their presence.

a white out said, Princess Haiku can cleanse the soul

I returned to a primal white, the flower eye of first perception today.

Ghost Orchid Time Lapse

sorrow's white flower said, Princess Haiku

orchid immortality, said Princess Haiku

soul is called orchid forth, said Princess Haiku

consolation in the words of Tagore, said Princess Haiku

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.

--Rabindranath Tagore

a frost white morning, said Princess Haiku

A certain little boy was delighted with the frost painted on rooftops this morning. Jack Frost came, he announced as he skipped into the school yard. It was definitely a chilly morning but beautiful. -Lace fingers of frost entwined with sunlight. Oh beautiful world.

bellissima, orchidissima my love, said Princess Haiku