Garden Under Lightning
(Ghost-Story)
Leonora Speyer
Out of the storm that muffles shining night
Flash roses ghastly-sweet,
And lilies far too pale.
There is a pang of livid light,
A terror of familiarity,
I see a dripping swirl of leaves and petals
That I once tended happily,
Borders of flattened, frightened little things,
And writhing paths I surely walked in that other life –
Day?
My specter-garden beckons to me,
Gibbers horribly –
And vanishes!
About this poem
“Garden Under Lightning (Ghost-Story)” was published in Leonora Speyer’s book “A Canopic Jar” (E.P. Dutton & Co., 1921).
About Leonora Speyer
Leonora Speyer was born in Washington, D.C., in 1872. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927 for her collection “Fiddler’s Farewell” (Knopf, 1926). Speyer died in 1956.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
