Poem by poet and memoirist, Reginald Dwayne Betts. First published in Poetry Magazine, September 2011.
The poet plays with Greek and Latin roots to communicate aspects of the poet’s love as well as of the character he’s addressing, “anthophilous.” The result is a figurative garden, in which the bel...
For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers,
green roses, chrysanthemums, lilies: retrophilia,
philocaly, philomath, sarcophilous—all this love,
of the past, of beauty, of knowledge, of flesh; this is
catalogue & counter: philalethist, negrophile, neophile.
A negro man walks down the street, taps Newport
out against a brick wall & stares at you. Love
that: lygophilia, lithophilous. Be amongst stones,
amongst darkness. We are glass house. Philopornist,
philotechnical. Why not worship the demimonde?
Love that—a corner room, whatever is not there,
all the clutter you keep secret. Palaeophile,
ornithophilous: you, antiquarian, pollinated by birds.
All this a way to dream green rose petals on the bed you love;
petrophilous, stigmatophilia: live near rocks, tattoo hurt;
for you topophilia: what place do you love? All these words
for love (for you), all these ways to say believe
in symphily, to say let us live near each other.
“For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers” was written by Reginald Dwayne Betts.
“For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers” was produced by Poetry.
Reginald Dwayne Betts released “For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers” on Thu Sep 01 2011.