After writing this poem about the symmetry of light and dark, I learnt that the black swamp lily, 'dragon lily' may not originate in Australia, so my whole concept may be a mistake, but why waste a good poem?

NEGATIVE PERFECT

Does nature smile in the mirror
And hug herself at the joke,
That shows us the beauty of negative
In darkness, like sooty soft smoke?

Lilies and swans for purity,
Gleaming spotless white,
But if you turn the world over:
Be amazed at the beauties of night!

Negative swans, in beauty,
Glide with a coal-black gleam.
Beside them a gloomy swamp lily
Reflects like a ghoul in the stream.

We love the white, in its glory,
A positive picture of peace,
But the black has just the same quality,
Serene and shining. They please

As much in their dazzling darkness
From the world turned upside-down,
As ours, in their dazzling whiteness:
Stuff of legend and renown.

Would Leda have loved her seducer
If he’d wooed her in villainous black?
Would Adonis lie among lilies
Dull as bruises, for Venus’ attack?

They would, if they’d seen this loveliness,
Gloom in a glorious mode:
The shining spathe of the lily;
Sooty swansdown, soft for her brood.

The dark side has truth to teach us,
Subverting established ideas:
Re-consider the truth of opposites;
Look again at our nightmare fears.

Congratulations, Australia!
But! A final problem I speak:
The white arum lily breathes sweetness;
Swamp lilies waft a rancid reek.