Poetry Friday: “From Blossoms”

One of my favorite Rob-isms was “It’s all about death and resurrection.” He’d often quote John 12:24 when he said it. Here in New England, we’re on the cusp of summer. The world is in full bloom. All of those seeds that fell to the ground last fall are coming up as flowers in gorgeous array. As the seasons shift, I am reminded that resurrection always comes after death. Whatever you face today, may you find life, the opening buds of resurrection. May you live “as though death were nowhere in the background. From joy to joy to joy.”

From Blossoms

Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward   
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.