Interlude (31)

1. So, Parts 36, 37 and 38 were included in Via Negativa’s weekly roundup of poetry blogs. Many thanks to Dave Bonta, who curates the list. You can find them here:
Part 36: Poetry Digest-2023 Week 9
Part 37: Poetry Digest-2023 Week 10
Part 38: Poetry Digest-2023 Week 11

2. And here’s a poem from April 2019. I had posted it along with a picture of Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Almond Blossom’ though I don’t remember now if the words came first on their own or were inspired by the painting. Perhaps the latter. I do remember why I wrote it and that’s why I think it belongs with this story. Am including it as Part 39.1 – the original post is here.

Collecting Blossoms

I pluck flowers from that painting every time
emptiness shapes itself into a room, into a bed,

into a voice. I hide them where you cannot see –
at the bottom of my teacup, on that window

sill where the light can’t reach even at noon, on
my shadow that never falls in this unerring

darkness, in my closed fist. Come very close,
closer, can you see a petal plotting an escape?

It has been trying for twenty-five years now. And
still I pick flowers from that inexhaustible tree. She

smiles at me even as I reach for it, as if we are
sisters, dressed alike for the harvest festival. I tell

her I am collecting blossoms for my grave. She
smiles wider. Bends lower. Is this kindness or

chicanery? I dream that every time the emptiness
shapes itself into your body, another flower blooms.

Advertisement