a sundial tells the hours in shadows
slow-winged in flight
as of some exotic butterfly
mercurial, mathematical
moving time onward yet motionless
set in stony stillness on a dayglo lawn
where primulas hold hot candled colours
like an oriental sunrise
of my brief imaginings

29 thoughts on “The sundial”

1. I love the mmm sounds in this. So many beautiful images in this quadrille.

   1. thank you – the sun brought some colour to my Muse for a change

2. There is a loveliness about sundials, taking us back in time to when life was more serene. Your poem reflects this feeling well.

   1. thank you – I slowed time!

3. Sun and sundial anchor each other while the world plays. I like how you used color to represent your imaginings.

   1. I have yet to see an oriental sunset so needs must imagine

4. I like the link between sundial and shadows.

   1. yes it is the shadow which tells the time

5. Such beautiful words and image. A wonderful quadrille Laura. I love sundials.

   1. me too – I think my love came up with the flowers

6. I love the oriental sunrise of the primulas! Great write.

   1. and this variety is called just that – thank you Beverly

7. A sundial is a perfect choice for the prompt, and you make the most of it. Shadows telling time is a terrific image; silent, stalwart, until clouds cover the sun.

   1. ah yes and then we are lost for time – many thanks Glenn

8. I love the description of the sundial like some exotic butterfly. Such a lovely time to behold an oriental sunrise.

   Thanks for being part of the dverse team and community Laura.

   1. as you watch the shadows of time move, the butterfly wings of gnomon and its shadow open and close – it makes for such a good metaphor too! Many thanks for the prompt and for including me in the Poetics community

9. set in stony stillness on a dayglo lawn
   This is a great line!

   1. glad you liked it Roth 🙂

10. Sundials are wonderful, Laura, and I’ve longed for an unusual one in our garden for a long time. I love that they ‘tell the hours in shadows / slow-winged in flight’ – if only our lives were slowed back down to that pace again. I also love the image of the ‘mercurial, mathematical butterfly’.

    1. I’ve often thought of making time to make one Kim! The gnomon is mercurial in its metallic element and its flight – thank you Kim – was happy with that line

11. Lovely images in this.

    1. thank you ❤

12. I bet oriental sunrises are petunias and Californian poppies. The stone sundial is a Pasha waiting for the air to cool.

    1. a nice combo but recently discovered Primula japonicas -Oriental sunrise – at RHS gardens at Harlow Carr

       1. I love primulas whereas I’m not sure I wouldn’t find an oriental sunrise hopelessly garish, like a photoshopped municipal flower display.

          1. oh no its a bobby dazzler in a cool and damp dappled sunspot

             1. Sounds exactly like what would die the death here ‘sigh’.

13. Your use of language in this works wonderfully. ‘mercurial, mathematical’ ‘hot coloured candles’, the imagery just dripped richness.

    1. lovely comment Carol – thank you!

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