Around doubt,
respect.
Around love,
roses,
debt.
Much industrial
share-sweat
has brought them
to you. Frothed
Persian light.
The salesman’s
semen-sweet fête.
Let down, then,
your beautiful
tabernacle
said I (& Blake).
God?
Profit
margin?
This hint
of mould
your undoing.
Love?
Spare me.
There’s
so little
time
left.
Questions and Answers
What inspired “Of Flowers”?
I think of this as a coy rewriting of Andrew Marvel’s “To His Coy Mistress”. As in the last answer, a love poem.
What poetic techniques did you use in “Of Flowers”?
Evasion. Metaphor. Assonance. Consonance. Word and phrase puns. Sculpture.
This poem “Of Flowers” originally appeared in Writers Talking. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 183 (Winter 2004): 12.
Please note that works on the Canadian Literature website may not be the final versions as they appear in the journal, as additional editing may take place between the web and print versions. If you are quoting reviews, articles, and/or poems from the Canadian Literature website, please indicate the date of access.