The tone of nature is related to what human beings call "grief". What Lucretius called "the tears of things", what in Japanese poetry is called "mono no aware", the slender sadness. Robert Bly.
The
cherry trees are in blossom in a neighbor's yard, high on a south
facing slope, and they buzz with bees. Down at the bottom of the hill
we wait hopefully in our shady clearing for this miracle to wander into our
yard.
Miracle?
Its all a matter of perspective. Does Spring, which comes every year,
class as something amazing, something to notice and to celebrate? I
would guess that it would be possible to not really notice Spring, -
the cherry blossoms - , but because I went and photographed them this
morning with careful intent I feel that have communed with them,
given them my attention, and have received something in return.
The
Japanese celebrate Sakura to make special note of cherry blossom time
and think of it as a slender sadness. Such fresh beauty for so brief a
time, like our own lives which seem so long from some perspectives
but, as the poets point out, are as brief as a candle's flame. To
celebrate Sakura is to incorporate impermanence into our
understanding of our lives.
The
bright cherry blossom is part of our lives this Spring. How
beautiful, how precious!
...............................................................
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the
bough,
And
stands about the woodland ride
Wearing
white for Eastertide.
Now,
of my three score years and ten,
Twenty
will not come again,
And
take from seventy springs a score,
It
only leaves me fifty more.
And
since to look at things in bloom
Fifty
springs are little room,
About
the woodlands I will go
To
see the cherry hung with snow.
AE
Housman
when cherry blossoms
scatter...
no regrets
Issa
.jpg)
