Fully occupied with growing--that's <br />the amaryllis. Growing especially <br />at night: it would take <br />only a bit more patience than I've got <br />to sit keeping watch with it till daylight; <br />the naked eye could register every hour's <br />increase in height. Like a child against a barn door, <br />proudly topping each year's achievement, <br />steadily up <br />goes each green stem, smooth, matte, <br />traces of reddish purple at the base, and almost <br />imperceptible vertical ridges <br />running the length of them: <br />Two robust stems from each bulb, <br />sometimes with sturdy leaves for company, <br />elegant sweeps of blade with rounded points. <br />Aloft, the gravid buds, shiny with fullness. <br /> <br />One morning--and so soon!--the first flower <br />has opened when you wake. Or you catch it poised <br />in a single, brief <br />moment of hesitation. <br />Next day, another, <br />shy at first like a foal, <br />even a third, a fourth, <br />carried triumphantly at the summit <br />of those strong columns, and each <br />a Juno, calm in brilliance, <br />a maiden giantess in modest splendor. <br />If humans could be <br />that intensely whole, undistracted, unhurried, <br />swift from sheer <br />unswerving impetus! If we could blossom <br />out of ourselves, giving <br />nothing imperfect, withholding nothing!<br /><br />Denise Levertov<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-m-tier-of-blossoming/
