To A Yellow Dog-Toothed Violet Poem by Imogene Wagner

It was love in that moment I saw you;
The wings of beauty stirring and the joy.
I knelt eagerly and touched your sheened leaf,
Lifting your dainty face with finger tip
As one would tilt the chin of a shy child
Then with a selfish passion for keeping
I ravaged the rich house that cherished you
Until I had found the pearl of your bulb.

Three years have I guarded you as my own,
To watch your shining leaf seek sun each May;
Three years has my love waited its flower,
I have brought you Anemone, Bluets
And Violets to stanch your loneliness
But your beautiful face hides in the earth...
Three years have I grieved, Oh my Beloved,
For this I have done.

(December 1948)