Yearning for Spring
When I saw these today I thought of Spring ... and of this song:
"When it's Spring again I'll bring again
Tulips from Amsterdam
With a heart thats true I'll give to you
Tulips from Amsterdam
I can't wait until the day you fill
These eager arms of mine
Like the windmill keeps on turning
That's how my heart keeps on yearning
For the day I know we can share these
Tulips from Amsterdam
When it's Spring again I'll bring again
Tulips from Amsterdam
With a heart thats true I'll give to you
Tulips from Amsterdam
I can't wait until the day you fill
These eager arms of mine
Like the windmill keeps on turning
That's how my heart keeps on yearning
For the day I know we can share these
Tulips from Amsterdam"
~ Ernst Bader, 1914-1999 ~
But I also came across this and a fellow Flickrite has been opening my mind to the poetry of Sylvia Plath, whose fascinating, if disturbed, life made for some deep and introspective poetry. The tulips in my image here are quiet and orderly .... and perhaps this is more what Sylvia Plath meant. Sorry this is so long but it tells a story.
"The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.
They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff
Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.
Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.
The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,
They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,
Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,
So it is impossible to tell how many there are.
My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water
Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.
They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.
Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage ----
My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,
My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;
Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.
I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat
Stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.
They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.
Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley
I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books
Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.
I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.
I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free ----
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.
The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.
Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe
Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.
Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.
They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.
Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.
The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me
Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,
And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow
Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,
And I hve no face, I have wanted to efface myself.
The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.
Before they came the air was calm enough,
Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.
Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.
Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river
Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.
They concentrate my attention, that was happy
Playing and resting without committing itself.
The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.
The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;
They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,
And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.
The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea,
And comes from a country far away as health."
~ Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963~
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Comments and faves
mukuk11, Gianluca Ermanno (aka Vygotskij 20.000), PeterKvG, wilthaihui, and 584 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Gery SINGER (77 months ago | reply)
Beautiful!
mukuk11 (77 months ago | reply)
this looks so... promising! I love the colours and the very crisp young tulips in the bottom rows! beautiful!!!
Gianluca Ermanno (aka Vygotskij 20.000) (77 months ago | reply)
Wonderful! :-)
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Janeice Bull (77 months ago | reply)
beautiful picture and I love the colors, very nicely done.
lawatt (77 months ago | reply)
so wonderfully cheerful! this photo so suits you...
LazyPhotographer2007 (77 months ago | reply)
Good Lord! I haven't heard that song in forever. I love the color, its my favorite.
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hedgiecc (77 months ago | reply)
Gorgeous - I adore tulips!
PeterKvG (77 months ago | reply)
Red tullips are the aggressive one's, the purples are from the fairies.
supercolli (77 months ago | reply)
love this concept
Garry Corbett (77 months ago | reply)
Superb quality colour photograph...
*Lorri* [deleted] (77 months ago | reply)
What a beautiful capture of color and contrasts.
ms.lume (77 months ago | reply)
Simply Glorious!!!!
Sylvia...Sometimes (77 months ago | reply)
I love your verses...your songs...almost as much
as your images. You have the knack for the perfect
mixture. Lovely.
mquest foto (77 months ago | reply)
two great quotes.
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snowy4052002 (77 months ago | reply)
Please add your
Beautiful photo to--
Beauty is in the *Eye* of the Beholder!
Gail Hicks (77 months ago | reply)
well Im anxiously awaiting spring and this photo makes the waiting even harder.........none the less this is a stunning beautiful shot.......
seen in explore
Christine Lebrasseur (77 months ago | reply)
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Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
How nice to waken up to all these lovely comments - thank you all for the visit, the comments, the faves and the very kind invites!!
steph.A (77 months ago | reply)
Beautiful!
Please consider adding to the groupEN MASSE
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
suzzaine999 (77 months ago | reply)
bfulllllllllllllll
Ms Ladyred (77 months ago | reply)
Beautiful capture ..congrats
eleda 1 (77 months ago | reply)
what a lovely capture, I can really feel the urge and need for spring too.
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
And thanks to all the people who faved!
Lidolil (77 months ago | reply)
Soo beautiful Lynn--love the song and the poem, you give us so much. i feel I would like to seek out more Sylvia Plath.
Deborah Harroun (77 months ago | reply)
This is gorgeous!! Makes me yearn for spring....
Silcami (77 months ago | reply)
So beautiful!!!
TriPoodle [deleted] (77 months ago | reply)
I absolutely adore purple tulips! : )
colorfulexpressions (77 months ago | reply)
Lynn: I didn't realize this was your photo! I've been coming across it and loving it, but haven't had enough time to stop and take a deeper peek! It's fabulous!
A Big Fave
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JenniferNelms (77 months ago | reply)
Delightful colors. I especially like the little snags of green in the uppermost portion of the photo.
Literary Reference in Pictures
janoid (77 months ago | reply)
Gorgeous shot!!
I love it!!
Amit Makwana (77 months ago | reply)
beautiful flowers!
lovely lines!
Kelly Angard (77 months ago | reply)
so very lovely...what more can i say? :)
Mai An Hoa (77 months ago | reply)
I love the patterns created by the display. I love the color! Spectacular. Quite a shift between the song and Sylvia. Good catch, Lynn.
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
Good heavens ... thank you everyone!
catsfalk (77 months ago | reply)
Absolutly wonderful! I love tulips!
Photodreamer (77 months ago | reply)
Absolutely stunning shot and accompanying quotes, Lynn! The Sylvia Plath quote is very profound - I actually need to read it a few more times...
Wonderfully done - fantastic job!!
peggy. (77 months ago | reply)
how wonderfully beautiful! such a treat for those missing the spring flowers :)
JodyMcG (77 months ago | reply)
These are gorgeous! I LOVE tulips!
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
Ro:: (77 months ago | reply)
Beautiful colors and flowers =).
Grantus Maximus (77 months ago | reply)
Magnificent Lynn: Love this image.
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
Lily Zaine (77 months ago | reply)
Wow, love the colors and the number of tulips
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)
Artiii (77 months ago | reply)
Stunning image! A refreshing a break from the usual tulip picture
d_oracle (77 months ago | reply)
aaah :-) nice! I bought tulips too today! have a look in my stream...
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Stefano_p (77 months ago | reply)
Fantastic colours!!
Michelle Kerr (77 months ago | reply)
this is gorgeous! thanks for the dose of spring...i can certainly use it right now!
Lynn Morag (77 months ago | reply)