Gratitude

Cherry

By bhi

Tue, 13 Apr 2021
  • 1842 reads
8 comments
 

they were blighted, our Japanese Mimosas.

the frost bit twice, two weeks apart;

the first stunted the new growth,

the second chilled the roots.

a neighbour advised warm water,

“not boiling” round the base.

i waited hoping – these gifts from our girls,

planted at a diagonal to your cherry tree -

looking for shoots, instead watched them dry,

the stem darken, bark brittling shrivel.

the youngest said, “please don’t cut them down,

they still might grow back”,

and so they remained, daily flaking,

until sharp eyed, one day, she stated, “it’s had a baby,”

and i eager to witness a rebirth

saw five shoots each where there had been one.

carefully nurtured they now rise five metres and more,

each intricate leaf and yellow blossom reminding

us all of you, the beauty of you in our lives,

the evergreen unselfish love you shared,

the seeds you planted, in me and our girls,

and i am grateful for the life had,

the life i have, and the life to come,

the ache of your absence killed by the spring.

Certificate 15
Poem
Communing with nature

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Beginnings and endings and so the cycle of life continues. I loved that the Japanese Mimosas produced new life, nature is so hardy, even when the going gets tough.

I like your way of thinking in this poem.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by bhi on

We thought the trees had perished and had it not been for the persistence of the youngest would have been cut down and uprooted. We had to be patient, but in the end we had what we had always wanted; trees as generous as the mother and partner we had had. Life, does indeed, spring anew, and with hope. Thank you for reading and the kind comments.

B

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I like how this made me think of  leaves unfolding one after another:

"i am grateful for the life had,

the life i have, and the life to come,"

one leaf would seem fragile, 2 risky, but three is burgeoning.

The slow pace gives space to every emotion, from despair to hope to the acceptance of the gift at the end

 

Submitted by bhi on

Thank you for the perceptive comments. We still have the original stem in the middle of the new, reminding us that death does not mean that life ends. We wanted so much for the trees to come back to life, and that will was rewarded! And now my daughters' Mimosas flank their mother's cherry tree, guarding and protecting it and each is watered and tended dilgently.

B   

 

Submitted by marandina on

That's a lovely story and a well crafted poem, of course. I have a cherry tree in my front garden planted from a sapling in 2004. I absolutely love the tree. There's nothing like watching something nurture and grow.

 

Submitted by bhi on

M, thanks for reading. It is so easy to pull things down, to give up on them, but the joy of life is to actively assist and observe that "growing" all around, our children, partners, flora and fauna. And it helps to be able to stretch time to suit us in order to do that.

B

 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Lovely, and I appreciate anything written in honour of a tree. :) 

 

Submitted by bhi on

OMT, thank you for reading and commenting. Maybe it's age but I'm finding myself communing with nature much more easily and with an affinity that i would not have thought possible when younger. It helps that I have two young dogs who walk me through the village every morning and are helping me with the story behind its trees and monuments!

B