Water Lilies, by DH Jenkins

Water Lilies, by Claude Monet (France) 1915

Water Lilies
 
“One instant, one aspect of nature
contains it all.” Claude Monet
 
Floating above these blue depths--
round islands of pastel,
some flat, rippled, wavering;
others high islands w/ ridges reaching
into air, conical like volcanoes,
which are the lotus flowers we aspire to.
 
From a distance, and under just the right
condition, the green streaks of growth
become visible as if revealed
below the surface of things.
 
Its streaming tentacles flexing, holding
everything together in what
Blake called generation--
the very fiber of plant, animal, and human;
nothing as mystical as light
or soulful as smoke--
 
just pure growth for growth's sake;
but for some reason hidden below the surface
called primordial images by some.
 
These strands are the space between,
mostly unseen, taken for granted; however,
when ignored, they just take you over,
then there's nothing you can do but float.
 
​DH Jenkins
 
DH Jenkins' poems have appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, The Tiger Moth Review, The Global South, Bellowing Ark and The Wave. For many years he was a professor of Speech and Writing for UMUC-Asia, living and working in Japan and Korea. He now lives in New Zealand and enjoys hiking in the Southern Alps as well as scuba diving and snorkeling in the Pacific Islands.