Word-Bird is excited and starts throwing strawberries 🍓🍓🍓 and gift bags 👜👜 at people in a random manner :>)
John, the Jelling Stones are indeed cool. You're welcome for the strawberries, which would have been very pleasant with the banana. I hope the trip to San Antonio went well. Re. the gift bag,
propio (we hope that's correct).
Thanks for enjoying the sonnet, particularly the closing couplet :-)
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Thanks,
Sarah-Jane; your appreciation of the sonnet is worth a lot :-)
Thanks very much for the freshly minted image; yes, images are welcome at Freshtival, as are videos, music, etc. The mixture of text and images is striking; and we're always glad to see the deer!
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You're welcome,
Nigel. By all means remain unconvinced, if you prefer; I'm not inclined to crack a whip about it. Thanks for enjoying the poems. There's lots of stuff I can't write about, for psychological reasons. But I do my best with what suits, using the term 'fresh' as a light to guide my way. 'The poet's progress,' Word-Bird coos :>o
Here's the duet I mentioned, inspired by
the Temple Greenhouse at Croome. I haven't set it to music yet; it's on the task list, as is adjusting the lyrics here and there ('scions', 'train'-hops'). Flora is a soprano; Ceres an alto. There'll be piano accompaniment and background humming.
Flowers and Fruits
Flora
I am Flora, the goddess of youth and of flowers
00and mine is the season of Spring;
I am buds bursting open in meadows and bowers
00and here are the gifts that I bring –
dainty daisies, bold buttercups, loud dandelions,
00sweet roses, forget-me-nots too,
all in bloom in their keenness to raise thousand scions
00in white, yellow, scarlet, and blue!
Ceres
I am Ceres, the goddess of fruits and of grain-crops
00and Autumn is mostly my time;
I am trees clad in baubles and fields full of train'-hops
00and here are my gifts in their prime –
fragrant grapes, comely cabbages, juiciest cherries,
00plump pears, wondrous wheat-ears as well,
all fresh ripened, displayed amongst fine beads of berries
00in purple, green, red, golden swell!
Flora et Ceres
Here's our Croome cornucopia, basket of plenty
00as carved on this temple of stone;
if you count up the contents you'll find over twenty,
00there's also some lichen fresh grown –
and on each side of pillars that look Roman Doric
00we goddesses gaze over routes
to the grand court of Croome, looking mighty historic
00and proud of our flowers and fruits!
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Tomorrow: sculpture.