Flower poem

The empty skullcaps
.....................................of the hyacinths
the cabbage-folded inward
.....................................pinks of roses,
oleander's plughole swirl, dropsical
.....................................purity of lilies
or the long verdibrass tubing
.....................................through which bindweed
blows its effortless white trumpet.
all tongues
.....................unheard except in colour:
......................................their Lilliputia
whose ports receive the gold and ivory
......................................their amber
their coins of amber ranged in a circle.
......................................Remark:
howsoever richly dressed a flower
......................................is still only a flower.
however finely dressed
......................................an ape
is still an ape, and I, an ape,
......................................seize to copy the
dress and address of these flowers.
......................................The Thames
Flows as air along my lawn; the bees
......................................are barges
ferrying to and fro with hooversac legs,
......................................a dubeity of light
......................................spends itself
......................................as dust, golddust.
Flowers sprawling in the dirt.
......................................It does not stay.
......................................Here! here! clitus!
......................................say the birds
the barn owl quotes Heraclitus
......................................Truly all's flow, and
those golds, gracing that bed, are called
......................................calendula heraclitii.
That is their true, their scientific name.