Oshibana
From within the folds
Of all our memories deep -
(Those musty brown newspapers
Some of which are still asleep)
Emerge dried petals
Stored safely from a yesterday
Wildflowers picked and gathered
From beside a weary way
Some in happiness, some in joy
Others in melancholy lost
And yet some more, gifted, and
taken not -
When Spring arrived beyond the frost
Dried petals, leaves, stamens and
all
That had crumbled long time
back
Forgotten most as days passed
by
Lost beneath the memory stack
Yet, look at them thus framed
in time
The picture’s perfect all,
All the colours now make sense
Through winter, summer, fall
And even if they don’t, we have
A painting of our broken times
Nectar, fragrance lost and gone
Left behind the petalled rhymes
A western breeze blows them
all
The flowers are all free,
To be born again, anew afresh
To be someone else’s memory…
1st October’22
Oshibana
(押し花)
is the Japanese art of using pressed flowers and other botanical materials to
create an entire picture from these natural elements.
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