Dance, that ye need no other day

You never have to explain chocolate cake, it is just chocolate cake, it needs no explanation, no elaboration, no analysis, it needs just one bite followed my many others and every bite confirms what the previous one confirmed, its chocolate cake pure and simple, so enjoy! The poetry of Philip Larkin often lends itself to explanation, elaboration, and analysis, but not this poem! Butterflies, was one of a number of poems not published until after Larkin’s death. Please take this poem as you would a slice of chocolate cake and enjoy every bite and every last crumb! There are some precious lines in this piece worth committing to memory.

Butterflies
Side-stepping, fluttering, quick-flecking,
              dropping like tops under the blue sky
Skipping white under the sultry pall of green
              summer trees
Or side slipping over the rich green hedges
              of cottage gardens, with red and
              yellow flowers
Of the sun, white-robed in linen,
Priests of the golden sun, dancing because
              the sun says to them: Dance, that ye
              need no other day
Butterflies, tossing their hours away
              Like honey drops.

Darling, when in the evening I am
              alone on the land
When the low sweep of the sunwarmed country
              returns to me like a forgotten dream
I could wish that we had been born as they
To take our day with the essence of laughter
And when the sunset silhouettes the forked elm
              To fall apart amongst the flowers
              Forgotten, forgetting what we should never have known.

Prayer:
Lord God,
I take a deep breath and enjoy
this your gift of life.
I set aside all
concerns of what the
day might bring.
I set aside all
worries of what tomorrow might hold.
I set aside all that is “I” to behold
all that is “other” all that is wonder,
all that is glorious
no matter what. Amen.