桜 (Sakura)

And so I woke up one night
In a freezing apartment,
So cold my nose felt like
A frigid piece of rubber on my face.
And that apartment was at the
foot of a mountain
With a rice field in between..
Because all available space
in Japan
Is a rice field,
Or a building,
Or a road between those two things.
And I've learned to sleep
Without the heater on
While in Japan,
Because it is the essence
of Nippon.
I still don't know, Japan,
When to call you Nippon
Or when Nihhon is proper,
But I know your essence:
gaman.
The stoic perseverance of a people,
Whose sublime transport is the
Blossom of a fruitless tree.

The winter is endurable,
Though the deathly chill
Drives man indoors and
Buds to dormancy,
Because the colder the winter,
The tighter the organic coil of
Blossoming power winds,
Releasing, once fully taught,
Billions of tiny petals
Like a slingshot--
Open in a moment
And sailing for a breath.
Japan,
Your cherry trees will stand,
Naked,
Eleven months of the year,
But they will captivate the soul
For a few brief weeks
With their show.

And when they shed their glory,
At the close this their yearly show,
Then the winter will end
With the closing snow.
Such are the host of petals
Making a final journey,
At the end of a brief appearance..
Like the breath of earth angels
Erupting into flurried clouds,
A single wind bears thousands
upon thousands
Of white flakes, flicks, flecks
Of pert pin points of
White--
Crisp yet creamy,
Delicate but violently swarming
Windborn wayfarers,
The Fruit of Winter,
From a fruitless tree.

Sakura, once I scorned your worship.
I scorn you yet as an idol,
But I applaud you as a
Worship leader.
If only you inspired eyes to look
higher,
To anticipate more than
one more spring,
But the Spring of the Spirit..
To do more than endure,
But to be clothed Eternal
in White.

--Joshua P. Suich
1/16/2008