Desert Flowers: You (V) (After Hölderlin)

O Earth Mother, who consents to everything, who forgives everything
don’t hide like this
and tell

Her Power is sweetened in these rays, the Earth before her
conceals the children
of her breast in her cloak, meanwhile we feel her,

and the days to come announce
that much time has passed and often one has felt
a heart grow for you inside his chest

They have guessed, the Ancients, the old and pious Patriarchs,
and in the secret they are, without even knowing it,
blessed
in the twisted chamber, for you, the silent men
but still more, the hearts, and those you have named Amor,
or have given obscure names, Earth, for one is shamed
to name his inmost heart, and from the start however man
when he finds greatness in himself and if the Most High permits,
He names it, this which belongs to him, and by its proper name
and you are it, and it seems
to me I hear the father say
to you honor is granted from now on
and you must receive songs in its name,
and you must, while he is distant and Old Eternity
becomes more and more hidden every day,
take his place in front of mortals, and since
you will bear and raise children for him, his wish
is to send anew and direct toward you men’s lives
when you recognize him
but this
directive which he inscribes in me is the rose

Pure sister, where will I get hold, when it is winter, of these
flowers, so as to weave the inhabitants of heaven crowns

It will be
as if the spirit of life passed out of me,
because for the heavenly gods these signs
of love are flowers in a desert

I search for them, you are hidden









Desert flowers (sunset): Tom Clark
Desert flowers (dawn): Tom Clark