To Fungus from Alga

Lichen

To Fungus from Alga

I had thought we were lichen,
Symbiotic, a wonder,
Two creatures, one life,
And dead if asunder.

Lichen is multiform:
Long-hairy, small-grainy,
Braves ice-caps and sand-dunes,
Climates torrid or rainy.

Its colours astonish:
Sea-green, scarlet, gold.
Slow as granite it grows
And is almost as old.

Fungus dead, bloodless alga
Might linger a week;
So what monstrous fate
Makes me nature’s worst freak?

Long ago I thought lichen
True symbol of bliss;
That poem, unwritten,
Would have differed from this.

By Molly Caird

.You see what my new love of lichen has brought me, not just purpose for country or town walks (as if I needed one) but new poets I had never heard of before. Mollie Caird who wrote ‘Lichen’ was born in Reigate in Surrey in 1922. I know Reigate well as my husband comes from there. Mollie sounds an exceptional person; she went to Oxford, met and married a man who became a minister in Canada. Eventually they returned to Oxford where, as well as devoting herself to her family, Mollie continued to write. Sadly her husband died in 1984 and this poem was written after that. Mollie died in 2000… I’m glad to have found her and will look for more of her work, and maybe post more here!