Theodore Roethke




Carnations

Pale blossoms, each balanced on a single jointed stem, 
The leaves curled back in elaborate Corinthian scrolls;
And the air cool, as if drifting down from wet hemlocks,
Or rising out of ferns not far from water,
A crisp hyacinthine coolness,
Like that clear autumnal weather of eternity,
The windless perpetual morning above a September cloud.


spoken = Heather C. Liston