Afterglow

[vaneramos]

I walked down the street to my favourite restaurant, the Greek Garden, for dinner tonight. On the way home I took the long detour through the park.

The air was heavy, still and honeyed. I caught a familiar fragrance like cloves and glanced aside to see wild phlox crowded in the undergrowth. I wandered from the path and went to stand in their midst, inhaling deeply. I bent closer to smell a head. The scent was sweet and floral. It is better from afar; an exotic spice.

I strolled further. The phlox were everywhere, drenching the riverside in pale purple and whitish-pink. Black willows raised glaucous clouds against the sunset. The park was dull with deep evening shade, lightly breathing, whispering with birds, the air saturated with scent, as if the whole woods had just finished making love.

And indeed it had. Summer solstice, the longest day of the year, has just passed. As I turned off the bicycle path into Kingsmill Avenue, the sun was still winking down, sinking to rest high in the northwest. It had just finished impregnating the trees with next spring's birth of buds.

Their boughs are heavy and sweet with chlorophyll. The dark maples hang sleepy and languid. They are a soaked lover on a tumbled bed. The sky sighs softly, and all the world is well.

Comments

[halation.livejournal.com]

dreamy, dreamy, dreamy
so ethereal
thank you for posting

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

you're most welcome, dear poet.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

have you seen the movie
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME?
that first picture reminds me of it.
otherworldly, but somehow familiar.
~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Oh, that movie. I watched it with the man I loved more than anyone else. When we saw that movie we realized we weren't well suited to be together, but we felt like we had a bond beyond life. I cried and cried.

This image does remind of that. It's ironic you would mention it, because I manipulated the photo slightly, which is something I haven't done to a pic posted on LJ before. It's like living in a painting!

Re:

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

it's a marvelous picture Van.
i feel much the same about
several people in my life.
some of them are not anywhere
physically near any more. i try
not to remind myself of their
absence. wow. got kind of
teary just thinking about that.
what kind of flowers are those
in your icon?
~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

It is called Plumbago or Cape Leadwort, and I think it is a South African plant, but can be grown indoors. Here is the original photo and another one I posted a couple weeks ago, though I like the cropped version much better:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/vwaffle/36361.html

[jaique.livejournal.com]

If anybody wants to know the meaning of "breathtaking" just show them that top picture.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[missprune.livejournal.com]

"as if the woods had just finished making love" What a concept, Van! I sense whole poems waiting behind that line...

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I feel as if my awareness of that space, that park, is coming to a level of maturity I have rarely had with any where before. I felt it yesterday while sitting on the dock at the cottage for an hour or so. No matter how much I love Lake Fletcher, at this time of my life I can't possibly know it as intimately as I do the woods along the Eramosa River, here in the city. It goes beyond poems. I still hope a whole book will come out of this love.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

mmmm, Salvia div dream :)

[jwg.livejournal.com]

The colors in that scene are just absolutely exquisite.
...and all the world is well....

i was worried...

[dubious-one.livejournal.com]

i'm so glad you have a web host again...your pictures are so neat!

[bardcat.livejournal.com]

extraordiary photography, not too mention your poetry and other writings. i am going to put you on my friends' list so i can read what you write often!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you!