Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Navelwort
NAVELWORT
Flowers, corpse-coloured,
Waxy as candles, stand in spikes
By cracks in the stone,
The tomb empty of all
But the dead man’s fingers.
Tissue pink as fractured bone,
Digits ply the weathered stone.
A leaf is the gently dimpled
Navel of Venus; the arching stalks
Pit the surface at the join.
Children, grazed by chafe or fall,
Peel the leaves like plasters.
Source material: Navelwort (also known as Wall Pennywort), has been a remedy against chilblains since Dioscorides recommended it in the first century. The epidermis, or “skin”, is peeled from the leaf, and the leaf is then applied to the chilblain. The epidermis itself is used in lieu of sticking plasters in the treatment of cuts and abrasions. The plant is prevalent in the south-west of England, and especially on the Isles of Scilly, where it often grows between the granite stones of megalithic tombs. “Dead Man’s Fingers” is a folk name which is also associated with the Early Purple Orchid and the Broomrapes. See Charles A. Hall, A Pocket Book of British Wild Flowers, London, 1937, p. 35; Gabrielle Hatfield, Hatfield’s Herbal, pp. 246-7; Geoffrey Grigson, An Englishman’s Flora, pp. 200-1.
Navelwort
NAVELWORT
Flowers, corpse-coloured,
Waxy as candles, stand in spikes
By cracks in the stone,
The tomb empty of all
But the dead man’s fingers.
Tissue pink as fractured bone,
Digits ply the weathered stone.
A leaf is the gently dimpled
Navel of Venus; the arching stalks
Pit the surface at the join.
Children, grazed by chafe or fall,
Peel the leaves like plasters.
Source material: Navelwort (also known as Wall Pennywort), has been a remedy against chilblains since Dioscorides recommended it in the first century. The epidermis, or “skin”, is peeled from the leaf, and the leaf is then applied to the chilblain. The epidermis itself is used in lieu of sticking plasters in the treatment of cuts and abrasions. The plant is prevalent in the south-west of England, and especially on the Isles of Scilly, where it often grows between the granite stones of megalithic tombs. “Dead Man’s Fingers” is a folk name which is also associated with the Early Purple Orchid and the Broomrapes. See Charles A. Hall, A Pocket Book of British Wild Flowers, London, 1937, p. 35; Gabrielle Hatfield, Hatfield’s Herbal, pp. 246-7; Geoffrey Grigson, An Englishman’s Flora, pp. 200-1.