"Memory Pictures"

I 

A wide-spring meadow in a rosy dawn
Bedropt with virgin buds; an orient sky
Fleeced with a dappled cloud but half withdrawn;
A mad wind blowing by,
O'er slopes of rippling grass and glens apart;
A brackened path to a wild-woodland place
A limpid pool with a fair, laughing face
Mirrored within its heart. 


II 

An ancient garden brimmed with summer sun
Upon a still and slumberous afternoon;
Old walks and pleasances with shadows spun
Where honeyed odors swoon;
A velvet turf with blossoms garlanded;
A hedge of Mary-lilies white and tall;
And, shining out against a lichened wall,
A stately-golden head. 


III 

An autumn hilltop in the sunset hue,
Pine boughs uptossed against the crystal west,
And, girdled with the twilight dim and blue,
A valley peace-possessed;
A high-sprung heaven stained with colors rare,
A sheen of moonrise on the sea afar,
And, bright and soft as any glimmering star,
Eyes holy as a prayer.



From 'The Watchman & Other Poems', published in 1916 by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 - 1942)




Pressed flowers, re-discovered in the leaves of my old leather Filofax.  I collected them from such far-flung places as the breathtaking mountains of Sicily, the pretty machair of a stunning beach on the Hebridean isle of Lewis, the shores of a glacial lake nestling among the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, and a peaceful country lane winding around St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly.  Evocative memory pictures from some of the most beautiful places around the world.

I bought a miniature press this week, with the aim of preserving more pretty little flowers from wherever I might gather them in the future.