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6 Jun 2024
Beth
Brooke
New Moon
Jun 22nd
May 23rd
Green Man
After Elisabeth Frink’s Green Man
(1991, charcoal / ink on paper,
The Dorset Museum)
‘O Lord, open thou our lips:
and our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.’
~ The Book of Common Prayer ~
Praise climbs out of my mouth,
clings to my cheeks like ivy
on the wall of a garden,
searches for the wildness and
wildernesses in which to grow.
The leaves unfurl and soon
there will be a blossoming;
bees will come, sip the sweetness
in my eyes and vibrate their wings
in a hymn to abundance.
My limbs will become branches
where birds will roost, make
chicks of eggs, sing all the while
as though the world depended on it
and we were equal voices in the same song.
Behind the poem...
This poem was inspired by the paintings and charcoal drawings of the Green Man by Elisabeth Frink – some of which are in my local museum, the Dorset Museum. I love Frink’s work, and have drawn on it as a source for more than 20 of my poems. Her representations of the Green Man were among her last works; reflecting her exploration of spirituality after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Frink saw the Green Man as signifying life’s irrepressibility.