INHALE (2)

This year we are surrounded by wild Freesias. They are everywhere. In gardens, along roadsides and bush tracks, popping up where you least expect them. For that reason they are considered an invasive weed here in Western Australia. When I think how much I would pay for a few stems of them in the UK, I cannot help but revel in the perfume that envelops me when I open the front door or walk with the hound in the early morning.

'Nothing is so beautiful as Spring -

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush

The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?

A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden. - Have, get, before it cloy.......'

Gerard Manley Hopkins

(click on highlighted text for info about Freesias and two links for info about Gerard Manley Hopkins - Including audio of one of his poems, beautifully read by Richard Austin)