Chapter 3 A secret revealed
Ashes of this memory, all scattered in the hush,
Winnowed by the narrow sieve that dwelled within my mind,
Awareness bubbled from the thought – beyond, behind, above-
Revealing landscapes masquerading in a cloak of leaves.
Echoes of my footsteps (sudden-born about my ears),
Negated dim imagining of this mendacious place,
Endlessly I might have trodden in the fashioned quiet,
Slanted in believing eyes or conjured by my preconcept of
Space.
Righteously I shook those virtual shackles from my feet,
Industriously speared my gaze to pierce the truthful scene,
Spun from this veracity my vision cleared the haze,
Intruding on surroundings I could never have evolved;
Not from all my study of the Louvre'd masterpiece,
Gleaming fresh as daffodils in time-encumbered frame.
And there I saw the pathway as it lay in moods revealed,
Stolen slips of colour twinkled in the phantom trees,
Tamarisk, the vibrant pink was faded into dust,
Opaline-comparisoned was every twig and bough.
Unheard the sounds of crystal birdsong chimed upon the air,
Nacre-gleam of perfumed fruit enhanced my glamoured mind,
Delightfully it overwhelmed the chagrin of my soul,
Spurring me to seek the serpent in this Eden garden I had found.
Chapter 4 Flora's Disciple
Winnowed by the narrow sieve that dwelled within my mind,
Awareness bubbled from the thought – beyond, behind, above-
Revealing landscapes masquerading in a cloak of leaves.
Echoes of my footsteps (sudden-born about my ears),
Negated dim imagining of this mendacious place,
Endlessly I might have trodden in the fashioned quiet,
Slanted in believing eyes or conjured by my preconcept of
Space.
Righteously I shook those virtual shackles from my feet,
Industriously speared my gaze to pierce the truthful scene,
Spun from this veracity my vision cleared the haze,
Intruding on surroundings I could never have evolved;
Not from all my study of the Louvre'd masterpiece,
Gleaming fresh as daffodils in time-encumbered frame.
And there I saw the pathway as it lay in moods revealed,
Stolen slips of colour twinkled in the phantom trees,
Tamarisk, the vibrant pink was faded into dust,
Opaline-comparisoned was every twig and bough.
Unheard the sounds of crystal birdsong chimed upon the air,
Nacre-gleam of perfumed fruit enhanced my glamoured mind,
Delightfully it overwhelmed the chagrin of my soul,
Spurring me to seek the serpent in this Eden garden I had found.
Chapter 4 Flora's Disciple