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

Read more by Philip Britts: Water at the Roots: Poems and Insights of a Visionary Farmer