Alpine Flower a Day: Giant Speargrass
Alpine Flower a Day: Day 15, Giant speargrass, Spaniard, taramea (Aciphylla colensoi)
– nearly tall as me, this one, and oh, what beautiful but dangerous golden flowers!
– Jan 2021, these needles found near the top of THE NEEDLE, Kahurangi National Park
notes from above-ground
there is no self-consciousness here
as in: there will be no likes for me
nor bitterness, you can bite
those paper skins all you like
without recrimination as if you were
Amazon at the top of the bloody world,
not a Spaniard in sight, I mean
not a tormented Russian having
an existential crisis in the tumid air
of internal pressure, retirement
and isolation. no, no isolation
here it is only dry heat and your feet
connected to the upward slope
of your profusion.
You might have picked up the references to Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground I was drawn to the idea of the prickly narrator and his suffering. I suffered multiple stab-wounds to my legs after this walk, a lot of it bush-bashing and trying to avoid their hidden spears in the undergrowth. Yet, the poem connects to the joy of being in the mountains; time spent there is what keeps me above-ground.
If you're interested in the inspiration behind this month-long series of 'An Alpine Flower A Day' about NZ alpine flowers and poems, you can find more in my first post: An Alpine Flower A Day Enjoy!
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