wildflowers

“Karkar” is Complete

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Tritoniopsis antholyza, 3 December 2018. Copyright 2018 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.
The Rietpypie or Karkarblom (Tritoniopsis antholyza), 3 December 2018.

“Karkar”

Both versions of “Karkar”1 (previously “Rietpypie”) are finished. The first, “Karkar”, consists of three stanzas and the second, “Karkar Flowers”, of two. Their styles differ, but their themes are the same: delight at the fiery flower, vivid in the setting sun. Which version to include in the final collection, I am yet to decide.

  1. “Karkar” (pronounced [kaRkaR] with a trilled [R]) is onomatopoeic, referring to the sound produced when rubbing the ribbed dry leaves together.

The compositions took much longer than anticipated: an unprecedented five months (though writing was sporadic), interrupted by life and, most significantly, love. Now, more focused on the anthology than ever, I eagerly begin development on “Lobelia” (working title), the second of the “Wild Flower Sketches”.

Lobelia chamaepitys, 7 December 2018. Copyright 2018 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.
The Thin-stalked Lobelia (Lobelia chamaepitys), 7 December 2018.

“Lobelia”

The wild Thin-stalked Lobelia is endemic to the Overberg.2 It first enraptured me in 2018 on a mountain slope not far from where I would see it again, three seasons later (along with other wild flowers new to me, among them, the Karkar Flower). Bewitched by its winglike violet petals in the breeze, a poem was inevitable.

  1. As are all the flowers and creatures of which I write—swallows, the only exception. (The Overberg is an agricultural region in the Western Cape province of South Africa.)

Its loveliness I shall now attempt to extol by developing the sketch I composed after the second encounter. I intend to write more frequently, so I expect it should be completed faster than its companion “Karkar” set; however, poems are not predictable, and I must humbly submit to my Muse (that gentle wind o’er the hills).

Poetry Publication Progress (2021-09-19)

The Evolution of “The Wind!”

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Flock on a Distant Hill
A flock of sheep on a hill in the spring of 2017. Such a scene appears in the recently completed poems.

The Wind Trio

Sometimes, a poem takes on a very different form, once the writing process begins, and the first draft is but a germ. What started as a playful two-stanza composition about the moods of the wind, has through many variations become a meditation on its gentler moments, manifesting itself in three separate poems (a trend of late) bearing no resemblance to the original sketch.1

  1. The original first stanza—incidentally, inspired by a note made whilst working on “Most Sublime” (of which I wrote in “This November”, paragraph 10): “Stroking, playing, flowing, rolling, / Rippling in the grass! // Lapping, skipping, dancing, strolling, / Never where it was!”. The transformation was the result of an image evoked by “To a Wild Flower I”, creating a style more contemplative than gambolling.

They are, in order of likelihood of inclusion in the anthology: “The Wind at the Wayside”, a delicate reverie on the lightest zephyrs of spring; “On the Wind”, a variation on that subject, drawing on the same imagery; and “Ataraxia”—a word derived from Ancient Greek that refers to a state of serene calmness—a distillation of the aforementioned poems in a single four-line stanza.

Tritoniopsis antholyza, 3 December 2018. Copyright 2018 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.
Tritoniopsis antholyza, commonly known as the Rietpypie2 or Bergpypie3, photographed at eventide in December 2018, the beginning of the South African summer.

The Wild Flower Trio

Next is the “Wild Flower Trio”, three poems inspired by floral finds on a heathery mountain slope in the spring of 2018. Four sketches resulted from that indelible excursion of which I wrote in “This December”. It has been two years since then, but the textures, perfumes, sights and sounds are vivid within me as I slowly move my thoughts to “Rietpypie”2, the first of the set.

  1. “Rietpypie” is Afrikaans for “little reed pipe” (pronounced “Rietpaypy” with a trilled [R]).
  2. “Bergpypie” is Afrikaans for “little mountain pipe” (pronounced “behRCHpaypy” with a trilled [R], the guttural [CH] sound in “loch”(not the [ck] in “lock”) and the [i] in “did”).

Poetry Publication Progress (2021-04-27)

“Little Evening Lily” is complete!

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Aandpypie (Gladiolus liliaceus), 19 October 2018. Copyright 2018 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.
The wildflower, Gladiolus liliaceus. Taken 19 October 2018.

“To a Wild Flower”, previously “Little Evening Lily”, is complete! What began as a single sketch—an ode to my beloved Gladiolus liliaceus in all its incarnations—has blossomed into three separate poems: I. “Lovely Wayside Lily”, II. “There Is No Other Lily . . .” and III. “Wondrous Afrikaner”.

As expected, it took four months to develop the three variations, each dwelling in short and simple lines upon those aspects of the flower that charm me most. I am content that I have poured into the stanzas my naïve appreciation of the flower’s beauty and eagerly await September that I may recite to it my laudations.

Next, I shall develop “The Wind!”, a sketch outlined in November 2018, one of several compositions on the titular theme. Wild flowers, birds, beasts, hills, fields and the wind: these move me to verse! For the moments when they leave me speechless, I write poems bursting with praise.

Poetry Publication Progress (2021-03-13)