I should have thought
in a dream you would have brought
some lovely, perilous thing,
orchids piled in a great sheath,
as who would say (in a dream),
“I send you this,
who left the blue veins
of your throat unkissed.”
Why was it that your hands
(that never took mine),
your hands that I could see
drift over the orchid-heads
so carefully,
your hands, so fragile, sure to lift
so gently, the fragile flower-stuff–
ah, ah, how was it
You never sent (in a dream)
the very form, the very scent,
not heavy, not sensuous,
but perilous–perilous–
of orchids, piled in a great sheath,
and folded underneath on a bright scroll,
some word:
“Flower sent to flower;
for white hands, the lesser white,
less lovely of flower-leaf,”
or
“Lover to lover, no kiss,
no touch, but forever and ever this.”
(Hilda Doolittle)
More Poetry from Hilda Doolittle:
Hilda Doolittle Poems based on Topics: Flowers, Love, Kiss, Dreams- Orchard (Hilda Doolittle Poems)
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- Wash of Cold River (Hilda Doolittle Poem)
- Pear Tree (Hilda Doolittle Poem)
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