Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MOUNTAIN LAUREL, by CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MOUNTAIN LAUREL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Like the beating heart of a bird caught and held in the hand
Last Line: Sweet . . . Sweet as the laurel . . . Bitter sharp as pain.
Subject(s): Laurels


Like the beating heart of a bird caught and held in the hand,
Memories move under the five fingers of the mind:
The bitter biting taste of the alien tamarind;
The flowing inflexible hardness of sun-dried sea-sand;
The planes of a familiar face, wrinkled and weather-tanned;
The tones of a familiar voice, firm but completely kind,
And the scent of mountain laurel where little footpaths wind
Following the turbulent water-ways of a mountain land.

The last is the strangest of all . . . to wake under the Southern Cross
With the sweet smoke of the laurel blowing through the brain
Stronger than jungle-ginger and the rotting jungle-moss,
Or the evil smell of orchids distilling the monsoon rain
To the odor of death . . . waking with a clinging sense of loss,
Sweet . . . sweet as the laurel . . . bitter sharp as pain.





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