
Can a person swear for joy? It’s what I do. My reflex on encountering a poem that triggers a rush of involvement on first reading is to let fly a putatively disobliging epithet. It’s a reverb from the salutary shock delivered by luminous words arranged in crystalline structures.
I’ve no license to quote Li-Young Lee’s entire poem titled “From Blossoms”; you can read it here. Let me just excerpt constructs from the first 3 strophes, unspooled from their lineation (is that sacrilege?), and quote the last strophe integrally, with its tolling as of a poignant recessional:
From blossoms comes this brown paper bag of peaches…
From laden boughs… comes nectar… the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,… 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.
The penultimate line, driving a swoop to the impossible, flaunts a specimen of truly purposeful enjambment in free verse.
(c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
🖤🤍
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That’s such a delightful image – ‘the round jubilance of peach’! Thank you Jim!
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Delighted you enjoy it, too, Sue. Stone fruit is in season here, as it happens. Best regards!
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Ah that’s a nice season – I just hope you are not under threat of fire or hurricane at the moment. It’s an interesting time politically for you too! Sue
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A bit of a squall coming off the Gulf nearby, but not serious, it seems. I see your phrase “interesting time” re our politics, Sue, and I chuckle accordingly! We could wish it were less “interesting” here!
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Wonderful imagery. Swearing for joy is my favorite way of swearing. To be clear, I don’t have an unfavorite way of swearing.
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Ha-ha! And a wonderful comment! I second your point about swearing — it’s never truly amiss. I’m pleased to surmise that we sing from the same hymnal in many respects.
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