by Kris Williams. Moonlit Shores - Black Point, Anglesey.
Diane Ackerman is our favorite contemporary poet who muses and reflects on the beauty of nature and science. Enjoy a sampling of her magnificent poems below.
JAGUAR OF SWEET LAUGHTER
We would lie on coral sand, below sugary stars,
watching Cassiopeia mount her throne
and the Great Bear wash its paws in the South.
I would say, "I have a secret to tell you."
And, folding me in your arms, boyish and sly,
you would answer: "Whisper it into my mouth.”
― Diane Ackerman, Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems
I PRAISE MY DESTROYER
How can it all end,
the moon making foil of the blueblack sea,
at twilight the sandbars holding lavender
among turquoise shadows,
pastels of water lidded by pastels of sky
and, at angle, moon shimmer snaking to the horizon?
By the dockside, a diver kneels at his tank,
to test the regulator, as if taking communion.
***
How can it all end,
the cabbage whites aflutter
like tissue-papers
lofting to Heaven in a Japanese temple,
the yellow roses numbingly fragrant
and even the spiky conifer
whispering scent.
I praise my destroyer.
The sea turtle's revenge
is to dwell at equal measures
from the grave. Our cavernous brains
won't save us in the end,
though, heaven knows, then enhance the drama.
Despite passion's rule, deep play
and wonder, worry hangs
like a curtain of trembling beads
across every doorway.
But there was never a dull torment,
and it was grace to live
among the fruits of summer, to love by design,
and walk the startling Earth
for what seemed
an endless resurrection of days.
I praise life's bright catastrophes,
and all the ceremonies of grief.
I praise our real estate - a shadow and a grave.
I praise my destroyer,
and will continue praising
until hours run like mercury
through my fingers, hope flares a final time
into the last throes of innocence,
and all the coins of sense are spent.
BEIJA-FLOR (HUMMINGBIRD)
When you kiss me, moths flutter in my mouth;
when you kiss me, leaf-cutter ants lift up
their small burden and carry them along
corridors of scent;
when you kiss me,
caymans slither down wet banks in moonlight,
jaws yawning open, eyes bright red lasers;
when you kiss me, my tiny fist conceals
the bleached skull of a sloth; when you kiss me,
the waters wed in my ribs, dark and pale
rivers exchange their potions--she gives him
love's power, he gives her love's lure;
when you kiss me, my heart, surfacing, steals
a small breath like a pink river dolphin;
when you kiss me, the rain falls thick as rubber,
sunset pours red caramel down my spine
and, in my hips, the green wings of the jungle flutter;
when you kiss me, blooms explode like land mines
in trees loud with monkey-muttering
and the kazoo-istry of birds;
when you kiss me,
a palm cradling the moon in its arm becomes
a pictograph for leisure; when you kiss me
my flesh sambas like an iguana;
when you kiss me,
the river-mirror reflects an unknown land,
eyes glitter in the foliage, ships pass
like traveling miracle plays, and coca sets
bush fires in my veins; when you kiss me,
the river tilts its wet thighs around a bend;
when you kiss me, my tongue unfolds its wings
and flies through shadows as a leaf-nosed bat,
a ventriloquist of the twilight shore
which hurls its voice against the tender world
THE SAVANT OF SUNFLOWERS,
THE APPRENTICE OF ROSES
Something in a rose
knows to spread its roots
into a stable base,
how to shimmy up a trellis,
graft onto reliable stock,
open up rich with scent,
and slowly unfold another
flush of tawny bloom.
While you’re away,
I miss the parts of me
that regrow with you:
the mischief elf, the sensual self,
the sonneteering ghost
who rides the flanks of night,
breathing time, sweating stars,
while memories swim
like constellations overhead.
I miss the serpentine Eve
who rarely dozes, the attaché
that sometimes imposes,
all the sprites who sprint
through the high supposes,
the patient saint who aspires
to a heaven which encloses,
and, especially, the touched one
committed to the asylum
and penitentiary of roses.
–– Diane Ackerman
Read more of Diane Ackerman’s gorgeous nature and science themed poems in these books: Origami Bridges: Poems of Psychoanalysis and Fire
, I Praise My Destroyer: Poems
, Reverse Thunder: A Dramatic Poem
, Lady Faustus
, The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral [Poems]
, The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us
and Wife of light.
You can also hear her speak and read at the Nantucket Book Festival, this coming June (2016).
Read more about Beautiful Poetry in 10 Most Beautiful New Poetry Books Now.
And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.
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IMAGE CREDITS:
- Image: by Kris Williams. Moonlit Shores - Black Point, Anglesey.
- Image: Courtesy of Hubble Heritage. Kepler's Supernova Remnant SN 1604.
- Image: by Paul Stein. Cabbage White Butterfly, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Brooklyn New York.
- Image: by Jim Culp. Rufous Hummingbird.
- Image: by Dana. Roses.
- Image: by Michael Weschler. Courtesy of Nantucket Book Festival. Diane Ackerman.
- Image: by Darkangels. Sunflower.
- Image: by Lars Steffens. Sunset, Aachen, Germany.
- Image: by BN App - Download now!
- Image: by Chuck. California Route
