"Red Geranium and Godly Mignonette"

Imagine that any mind ever thought a red geranium!
As if the redness of a red geranium could be anything
but a sensual experience
and as if sensual experience could take place
before there were any senses.
We know that even God could not imagine
the redness of a red geranium
nor the smell of mignonette
when geraniums were not, and mignonette neither.
And even when they were,
even God would have to have a nose
to smell at the mignonette.
You can’t imagine the Holy Ghost sniffing
at cherry-pie heliotrope.
Or the Most High, during the coal age,
cudgelling his mighty brains
even if he had any brains: straining his mighty mind
to think, among the moss and mud of lizards
and mastodons
to think out, in the abstract,
when all was twilit green and muddy:
‘Now there shall be tum-tiddly-um, and tum-tiddly-um,
hey presto! scarlet geranium!’
We know it couldn’t be done.
But imagine, among the mud and mastodons
God sighing and yearning with tremendous
creative yearning, in that dark green mess
oh, for some other beauty, some other beauty
that blossomed at last, red geranium, and mignonette.



Published in "Last Poems" by David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930)




This is just one of the many pots of bright red geraniums in Dad's garden, which are still blossoming and looking good. I deadheaded them all for him last weekend. Dad seemed further improved when Mum and I visited him in hospital this afternoon. He wanted, and was able, to change out of his pyjamas into his fresh ones himself today - something which Mum has had to help him with in recent weeks. Only a few days ago a trip to the bathroom and a change of clothes would have had him gasping for breath and near collapse, but today his breathing was so much better and he was fidgety (a good sign) and chatty. He is eating all his meals and extra fruit that we've brought in for him. Tomorrow at 9.30 a.m. we will have a meeting with the Oncologist - who specialises in lung cancers - to hear about all the ongoing treatment options available to choose from which could slow down the cancer and help Dad to feel as well as possible for as long as possible.