Tigerlily

I picked up my copy of the poet's Collected Poems and Selected Prose on Sunday, reread this poem, and very much wanted to share it. Then I thought, "what if I make this a Sunday Poem thing. Wait, a Sapphic Sunday thing." So here's a start, and a day late because I got home tired. You can see the poem in its formatting here.

"On the Road to the Sea"

Charlotte Mew

We passed each other, turned and stopped for half an hour, then went our way,
I who make other women smile did not make you--
But no man can move mountains in a day.
So this hard thing is yet to do.

But first I want your life:--before I die I want to see
The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes,
There is nothing gay or green there for my gathering, it may be,
Yet on brown fields there lies
A haunting purple bloom: is there not something in grey skies
And in grey sea?
I want what world there is behind your eyes,
I want your life and you will not give it me.
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