Existing Only Briefly

In Japan, cherry blossom symbolises clouds, and is a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life. I caught a late photograph of this tree bursting into life tonight on my way home.

A little while later and I found out more than I bargained for about this much loved tree-I have a fabulous gardening book. Apparently cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese folk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms.

It made me think about all of the other plants coming back to life around now and I remembered this poem from a reading I’d heard at one of our adult learning classes.

Lines Written in Early Spring
by William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?