The Pot Of Flowers

Poetry

Nov 11

by William Carlos Williams

Pink confused with white
flowers and flowers reversed
take and spill the shaded flame
darting it back
into the lamp's horn

petals aslant darkened with mauve

red where in whorls
petal lays its glow upon petal
round flamegreen throats

petals radiant with transpiercing light
contending
above
the leaves
reaching up their modest green
from the pot's rim

and there, wholly dark, the pot
gay with rough moss.

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was an American poet and longtime doctor in Rutherford, New Jersey. Born to an English father and a Puerto Rican mother, he became a leading Imagist alongside Ezra Pound and H.D., writing crisp, experimental poems rooted in everyday life. Though initially overshadowed by contemporaries, his distinctly American verse later inspired the Beat generation. His work is admired for empathy and honesty. This poem is in the public domain.

Joshua Wait

Joshua Wait studied English at UC Berkeley. He wrote his undergraduate thesis on the relationship between art and

poetry in the New York School. He received a Masters in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has served in programs for children, youth, and college students, in an organization addressing climate change, and in the tech industry as a CTO. He currently divides his time between his family and his artistic practice.

https://www.bluerivers.org

The Pot Of Flowers

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