Temples, Temple Oranges
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
“Take the orange petals,
Take the olive leaves”
~ Lorca, “Baladilla de los tres ríos”
Some poet somewhere ought to write about
The orange groves with darkness of their leaves,
More dark than leaves of olive trees so stout
In ugliness. The orange grove receives
A sun as total as the one in Greece,
Yes more intense, yet orange groves produce
Sweet blooms and fruit, both resting more at peace
Than horrors in Greek myth. The great god, Zeus,
Would never have enjoyed the nectar of
Temple oranges
This Temple sphere. His substitute was spare
Ambrosia. He never knew the love
Of honeybee for Temple blooms in air.
These trees with leaves and blossoms as their clothes
Are lovelier than olive trees in rows.
~ Phillip Whidden