Glastonbury Thorn
Scions of scions.
Cuttings of cuttings.
Grafts of grafts.
So it proliferates
Hydra-intelligent.
Joseph’s thorn tree defies
desecration, bursts anew
in another patch of holy
erthe. Even Kew has a
clipping become a tree,
which has been returned
to Glastonbury. Where
myth is abiding energy,
there my Lover & I
knew mystic marriage
beneath thorny boughs.
Scions of scions.
Cuttings of cuttings.
Grafts of grafts.
Her icons, my sacred texts
hung tribute on its branches.
Propagating the thorn’s
phyllotaxis, to lacerate
the quotidian, to ensure
holy erthe fecundates.
Mark Wilson has published five poetry collections: Quartet For the End of Time (Editions du Zaporogue, 2011), Passio (Editions du Zaporogue, 2013), The Angel of History (Leaky Boot Press, 2013), Illuminations (Leaky Boot Press, 2016) & Paolo & Francesca in a Colder Climate (Black Herald Press, 2025). He is the author of a verse-drama, One Eucalyptus Seed, about the arrest and incarceration of Ezra Pound after World War Two, as well as a tragi-comedy, Arden. His poems and articles have appeared in a wide range of international magazines.
Amethyst Review 