O Land of Ice and Fire

The Keystone of the Sky

In the Cool of the Evening

In the Cool of the Evening

In the cool of the evening, silver-lit,
when the tide of noise has receded at last,
God walks along the coal-black beach
to listen out for the whispering waves,
to listen out for prayers and sighs,
to look for golden gems in the sand,
to look for purity in the hearts.

Christina Egan © 2016

Necklace of matt black and translucent green beads.

These lines were inspired by the pristine deep-black beaches of Lanzarote, where you can find lava and, in some rare places, tiny shards of olivine.

The strange idea that God walks on earth in the evening to observe humans stems from the story of Adam and Eve, when they are still in paradise but have lost their purity of heart (Genesis 3,8).

rosengarten (II. sprühendgrau)

rosengarten

II.

sprühendgrau

die ungeahnten sonnenglanz vergießen
die regenschauer und den regenbogen
zu einem milden meeresgrau verwoben
die augen sollen meine verse grüßen.
dem nebelland das immerkalte wogen
in ungestümem reigentanz umschließen
den inseln voller sprühendgrüner wiesen
sind jene augen ursprünglich enthoben.
drum frag ich nicht nach lilien und lavendel
die flammen sprühen auf gebeugtem stengel
noch nach des südens uferlosem blau
nichts brauche ich als meinen kleinen garten
wo alle wunder lächelnd meiner warten
die bunte welt geballt in sprühendgrau.

Christina Egan ©2023

This sonnet is part of a cycle of 14 poems, whereby each line of the first one (rosengarten I. tiefversteckt) furnishes the first line of a new sonnet.

The island described here is Ireland, but the cycle takes you to other islands, as well as to the palace gardens of Würzburg, Germany, which first inspired me.

Word cloud of colours and flowers and in white on black; in the middle, "multi-coloured", "green", "golden".

Word cloud of colours in the German sonnet cycle (rosengarten I-XIV), generated on the Simple Word Cloud Generator. In the middle are “colourful”, “green”, and “golden”. Since the colours of the roses are not described, the roses themselves are added.

A New Poem is Being Born

Tepid Tides

Orange and Turquoise (Crete)

Orange and Turquoise
(Crete)

Fresco of red crocuses on orange ground near blue water.orange and amber
the southern soil
like fresh fruit
like lush flesh

turquoise and azure
the sun-steeped sea
like human eyes
like human souls

Christina Egan © 2012


orangerot und türkis
(Kreta)

Flourishes on a mural, turquoise on luminous red and yelloorangerot
und ocker loht
die stille bucht
wie fleisch und frucht

türkis azur
der wellentanz
wie augenglanz
und aurenspur

Christina Egan © 2016

 

Decorative paper, light-blue with ripples in yellow, red, white, green.A reddish orange and a greenish blue are complementary colours and will therefore be more striking in combination. 

In the Mediterranean, strong light and heat prevail even in late September.

I found this beach at the edge of the five-thousand-year-old town of Chania on Crete.

You can read more about the bright blue and green sea in Kretische Küste and about the reddish soil in The Dittany of Crete.


Murals in the royal palace at Knossos, Crete.
Watercolour of crocuses by Arthur J. Evans: Photograph provided by Digital Bodleian Library under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Photograph of spirals: Harrieta171 via Wikimedia.

Decorative paper. Photograph provided by British Library through Flickr .

Green Lagoon / Crater Lakes

Green Lagoon
(Lanzarote)

Down the cauldron of the mountains,
on an island like a moon,
down the sooty, rusty hollows,
you will find the green lagoon

where your destiny is brewing,
where new dreams are bubbling up,
where the sky is pure and glowing,
where the earth is fresh and hot!

Christina Egan © 2015

Olive-green inlet amongst towering black and red rocks, entirely barren.

Crater Lakes

Afar, I’ve seen the keen and tranquil green
of crater lakes, like mirrors of my dream…
And now I turn to look into your eyes
and find the same mysterious silver gleam
and realise my dream’s materialised.
Love happens, blossoms, thrives – and never dies.

Christina Egan © 2011


Please also note my poems about the green crater lakes at Kaali, Estonia (Der Erde Auge) and at Sete Cidades, Azores (Sonett der drei Seen).

Green Lagoon, El Golfo, Lanzarote. Photograph: Justraveling.

Die Wege von Malta

Die Wege von Malta

Über das zerrissene
blütensprühende Gestein
legt sich das zerschlissene
Fischernetz im Sonnenschein:
Eselswege, Autostraßen,
steil und krumm und oftgeflickt,
Klosterhöfe, Promenaden,
salzbehaucht und dufterquickt.

Netz von Stiegen, Steigen, Pfaden
wandelt flugs ein Wolkenbruch
zu Kanälen und Kaskaden,
füllt die ausgedörrte Schlucht,
tränkt die berstendgrünen Triften,
häuft den sonnengoldnen Sand,
formt den Lehm der stolzen Küsten,
höhlt die wilde Felsenwand…

Christina Egan © 2018

Small bays of limpid turquoise water, golden rock and sand, fresh green slopes.

A golden and green impression of Malta Island in February —
glorious spring! — Photograph: Christina Egan © 2018.

Quiet Fire

Quiet Fire

In balmy darkness
I was floating
over sand and salt,
along the garland of lights,
below the curtain of stars…

One fell.
In a flash, I thought of
my distant beloved one,
in a flood, it came back,
the impossible future.

Decorative paper, black with ripples in grey, white, purple.He, too,
had come like a shooting-star,
fair, fast, in a sweeping curve,
with careless grace,
like a message from life.

Cold is the sea now and rough,
with dullness tainted the days
and the sparkling tent of the night.
The quiet fire has passed:
the face that mattered.

Around me is autumn,
and I know that spring will return
and my youth will not.
The voice that struck me is silent;
and my heart eats death.

Christina Egan © 2012

A memory of the Mediterranean Sea, where one can swim, and swim even in after dark, even into autumn…

Decorative paper. Image provided by British Library through Flickr.