Joan Gelfand
HANAMI
Flower gazing in Japan is serious business.
This spring, the news is very bad.
Refugees flee heat, drought, quakes and cyclones,
Regimes of terror. Global pandemic. Still,
Hanami calls parties to gather under cherry blossom trees
Delight in the fullness of bloom, each thin petal,
Translucent, hugging tightly to the next.
Tiny umbrellas of pink light.
We bow to impermanence, toast beauty,
The blossoming and dying of things.
In honor of hanami, we trek in California, hunt for wildflowers.
Look! There!
Pale trillium, hidden in a stand of oak. Mission Bells in full sun,
Brown and yellow checkered hoods like the caps of fairies.
Yellow iris secreted inside a ring of redwoods.
These sightings soften my heart, illuminate wonder.
Like seeing an old friend after too long.
Hanami is our silent nod to enduring
Cataclysm, atrocity, the great unknown.
Everything changes, and still, beauty prevails.
Joan Gelfand is the author of three full-length poetry collections, an award-winning collection of short fiction and You Can Be a Winning Writer, an Amazon #1 best-selling book for writers. Gelfand's debut novel, Extreme, was a New Fiction finalist in the International Book Awards.