Feu de Joie

The mountain garden
Grows dark in Winter,
Mantled in shadows
While the truant Sun
Courts the North.
Yet wonderfully,
In this gloom and chill
The terraces begin
To glow with a heat
Of their own.
Like spears reddening
In the forge,
The Aloe buds are raised,
Defying the dark
With burning brands of
Hot colour,
Rust and Gold,
Molten Copper,
Fiery Corals,
Smouldering Crimsons
And Scarlets.
And now the insurrection spreads,
New explosions errupt
As Strelizias burst into flame
And Kniphofias shoot up
Incandescent rockets of
Fiery Yellow and Orange.
This is Winter's
Blaze of Glory!
C. Emily Dibb, Muizenberg