Who can see and understand

This delight of drinking in

Pink single rose?

Who can see and understand

How she speaks into my heart,

Warm single rose?

 

Single rose, pink petal,

Golden centre like a crown

Poised forever on the sky,

Not a petal flutters down.

 

What is it so firmly holds me

Petal pink or golden crown

Or the eye-blue sky beyond?

 

Only that such a lovely thing

Jetted before me, comes between

My straying eyes and the blue light:

Making me look away from the spiders

(The spiders plotting on the dunged soil

Whence I scarce believe the rose sprang).

 

Only that she is poised

(As if she waits my breaking in upon her)

Between my eyes and the blue light.

 

Only that she pauses

Before me, and above,

Making me look away from the dangerous garden,

Making me look at the sky,

Teaching me love.

 

Single rose, pink petal,

Golden centre like a crown

Poised forever in the sunlight,

Not a petal flutters down.

 

It is my seeing that completes her glory.

 

Philip Britts, 1941