I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

Photo by Picmonkey.

I have only so much room on our Gems, and this poem has 109 lines.  Here is the full stanza from which I pulled the lines I chose.

Lilacs,

False blue,

White,

Purple,

Color of lilac,

You have forgotten your Eastern origin,

The veiled women with eyes like panthers,

The swollen, aggressive turbans of jeweled pashas.

Now you are a very decent flower,

A reticent flower,

A curiously clear-cut, candid flower,

Standing beside clean doorways,

Friendly to a house-cat and a pair of spectacles,

Making poetry out of a bit of moonlight

And a hundred or two sharp blossoms.

-Amy Lowel, What’s O’Clock (Houghton Mifflin Company. 1925)

I’m not sure I can post the entire poem without permission.  You’ll find it here:  Poetry Foundation

Amy died in 1925. In 1926 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for “What’s O’Clock” which includes Lilacs.