Quote(s) of the Week: tulips

The thought of the first spring flowers and blossoms tends to be my lifeline through the doldrums of real winter.  It's time to be forcing bulbs and branches in order to feed my soul.


"But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter's evening. I remember them." 
— Neil Gaiman

as tulips do

the tulip doesn’t know the word pink,
but lives it every day, warm
as the inside of a mouth

its petals don’t know their name
but the inner-breath of lovers
repeats it over and over,
like veins

it has never heard of the word bulb
yet from the dark earth
it pushes its heart ---


  as headdress,
  as opened light


 Nicolette Marguerite van der Walt