20160120

Anne M Carson

Had I the heaven’s
Jacaranda mimosifolia

     (after Yeats)
The jacaranda is an openwork botanical
stitched onto the world’s parachute ceiling.

Raised scallops and picots are three-dimensional
ornaments – heavily patterned threadwork

weighing down the fabric of the sky. Today
it’s a shot silk of greys and mother-of-pearl

embroidered with unpindownable jacaranda
blue. Vivid purple-blue, agapanthus-

toned, a passionate declaration the tree
makes – and the leaves respond with green,

the sky with blue or grey. The conversation
is perfectly balanced, each party matching

the intensity of the other; tone on tone. Cut
a panel from the sky to sew a ruff onto your

bodice, another to trim the cuffs of your smock.
Feel the reassuring weight of quality handwork

fall around your wrists, rest confidingly against
your throat, your chest, feel the swing of the hem.

Flower-lace with enough substance to pull
heaven earthwards, permitting a taste of paradise.



Anne M Carson has been published in the USA, Ireland, France and widely in Australia. Her first collection, Removing the Kimono, was published by Hybrid Publishers in 2013. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Ron Pretty Poetry Prize. As a Creative Writing Therapist she has edited three books. She teaches Poetry Writing and Appreciation to adults. www.annemcarson.com
 
 
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