The Blue-Flag Iris

Smoothly the flower, with its vapors, glimmers, the touch of its velvet-style in the air in a blue-gray fragility, a quiet motion to compliment a rush of winds that pull the beautiful stalk from the roots—a hush. And there is a substance to the earth: yes, the shiny bud of the blue-flag iris blooming quietly along the silver-edged marsh.

• Marianne Moore