John Piper screen

Another Green Man from the John Piper screen in the Wessex Hotel in Winchester. I chose this for the icon for Poetry and Pictures English, as I felt that Piper truly understood the imagery of the Green Man and its place in English history. It is said that when Piper was not working, he doodled, and when he doodled, he drew the Green Man! I think it is a very poetical image as are all Piper's Green men, both here in Winchester and elsewhere.

 

Colours.

 

Flames licking, flicking

hands and arms and feet

if we can believe it,

wicker-man, flicker-man,

red man burning.

 

Dying, the year: listen, we hear

the rustling death of leaves

of feeble breath, twigs and bones

rattling in the wind,

grey man yearning.

 

New thrusting, spring trusting,

white perfection hanging.

Golden bursting,

Green Man, unseen-man,

hope returning.

 

 

(Published in Sarasvati no. 1 Nov 2008, Indigo Dreams Press)

Done