Written after a photograph by David M. Bernstein and comment by Eli Siegel
The white flower in reason
Holds the secret of all your sorrows.
The dark places of your heart lie in the rich green leaves
Visited by sunlight.
The petals are white,
Rising in snowy abundance to greet
All that is unknown.
What is this sought after world,
That knowing it is rivalled so by fear?
So, hope can turn to ashes in our eyes,
But even as we turn, ungratefully, away,
The lowly petals in wild disorder lie
Attesting to the glory
Of uncertainty.
They ask, as ever in sureness they did,
What is this world?
Karen Van Outryve
1969
