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Kathleen Raine

Lenten Flowers

Primrose, anemone, bluebell, moss
Grow in the Kingdom of the Cross
 
And the ash-tree’s purple bud
Dresses the spear that sheds his blood.
 
With the thorns that pierce his brow
Soft encircling petals grow
 
For in each flower the secret lies
Of the tree that crucifies.
 
Garden by the water clear
All must die who enter here!

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Other works by Kathleen Raine...
Lament

Where are those dazzling hills tou… Those crags in childhood that I u… Hidden, hidden under mist is yonde… Hidden is the heart. A day of cloud, a lifetime falls b…
 1
Millenial Hymn to Lord Shiva

Earth no longer hymns the Creator, the seven days of wonder, the Garden is over— all the stories are told,
The Wilderness

I came too late to the hills: they… Winters before I was born of song… Of spell or speech with power of o… The great ash long dead by a roofl… The voice of the crows an inarticu…
Nocturne

Night comes, an angel stands Measuring out the time of stars, Still are the winds, and still the… It would be peace to lie Still in the still hours at the an…
Worry About Money

Wearing worry about money like a h… I lie down in my bed and wrestle w… My bank-manager could not sanction… But life itself wakes me each morn… Urges me to give although I have…
 1
 1
A Spell for Creation

Within the flower there lies a see… Within the seed there springs a tr… Within the tree there spreads a wo… In the wood there burns a fire, And in the fire there melts a ston…
 2
 5
In the Beck

There is a fish, that quivers in t… itself a shadow, but its shadow, c… Catch it again and again, it still… Against the flowing stream, its li… with death - the impulse and the f…
Introspection

If you go deep Into the heart What do you find there? Fear, fear, Fear of the jaws of the rock,
 1
The River

In my first sleep I came to the river And looked down Through the clear water - Only in dream
Seed

From star to star, from sun and sp… And almost audible flowers whose s… And in the common meadows, springs… Now the lilies open, and the rose Released by summer from the harmle…
The Ancient Speech

A Gaelic bard they praise who in… Named the one indivisible soul of… For what are the bens and the glen… Immeasurable complexities of soul? What are these isles but a song su…
Paradise Seed

Where is the seed Of the tree felled, Of the forest burned, Or living root Under ash and cinders?
Confessions

Wanting to know all I overlooked each particle Containing the whole Unknowable. Intent on one great love, perfect,
 1
Storm

God in me is the fury on the bare… God in me shakes the interior king… God in me is the fire wherein I b… God in me swirling cloud and drivi… God in me cries a lonely nameless…
Seen in a Glass

Behind the tree, behind the house,… In the presence that I cannot see Otherwise than as house and stars… Tree, house and stars Extend to infinity within themselv…



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