0243 The Second Coming Poem by Michael Shepherd
0243 The Second Coming
This first August week, the geraniums
are flowering their second flush:
they braved last winter, huddled like cabbage stalks
so as to be inconspicuous
to the meddlesome and sterile fingers of frost,
then burst into abundant life, as did the pelargoniums,
with a blatant generosity or hymn of praise as if
to prove some point we'd overlooked
about Creation.
Last week, dead-headed like a battlefield,
they fell back into themselves, exhausted,
as if they wanted a long summer holiday,
to last right through to autumn's fall;
only, this week, to bear a second coming:
yet changed: their petals paler, exquisite,
water-coloured like shells fresh from the waves,
or the most delicate painted porcelain or
Japanese flowers brushed on silk;
as if God had fallen in love with His own Creation,
seeing it good; and then
repainted it with second, subtler coat;
and given to the geraniums
a second chance to remind us of the love
we missed the first time round.
Surely some revelation is at hand! Michael, you extend your metaphor in ways that delight me up to the end, especially at the end! You might be able to delet a word or two here and there, like 'God in love with his own Creation' could as easily (maybe) be 'God in love with Creation', 'His own' being understood. Maybe? Maybe not...
Oh dear, yes - it all due to random meetings of energies, isn't it? I did try to keep Him out this time... I'll have a word this evening. Guess I forgot the etiquette of God's Own Country.
I like it. Yeah. Partly because I love geraniums and use them in my poems whenever I can. Look at my poem 'Metaphysical Matters.' Though I love God, too, I think the poem loses something when you bring him in. Same thing with Creation. Very nicely done concluding lines, and good imagery throughout.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/26/2024 4:28:20 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Poems bringing God in as skillfully as you did it are all the better for it. Seeing the geranium as 'God's own creation' is like paying attention to details. Seeing it bloom again is indeed the second coming. And isn't that what it is all about? Nice job! Raynette