Sakura

Lately I’ve been in a poetry kind of mood so this is a poem I wrote if you want to read it. I hope just because I mentioned poetry you aren’t bored already. This poem doesn’t rhyme so maybe that helps since some people don’t consider non rhyming poems as poetry. I’m not sure why since the definition of poetry has the word prose in it which means common written or spoken language. Anyway, please leave a comment about what you think about it.

The Trees By the River

They twirl and float down onto the water

Water so clear and so cold, it is spring

Springtime is when they open up and reach out

Out to the sun and the people below

Below the blossoms that spring from the trees

Trees that are deep brown and flaking with age

Age of unknowable length, what they’ve seen!

Seen the bright kimonos passing on by

By the edge of the river many walk

Walk and chat about numerous subjects

Subjects like Westerners and their strange ways

Ways such as sitting in chairs, oh how strange!

Stranger still, they don’t use chopsticks or soy

Soy in their food or bentos no less

Less have we seen than cherry blossom trees

Trees that stood when the samurai where there

There in the shadows and ninja would sneak

Sneak to protect their master and their clan

Clans with a great many generations

Generations that still walk by these trees

Trees that look down with great wisdom abound

Abound and around yet we’ll never know

Know what it was like to be there that time

Time long ago when the trees were so young

Just in case you were wondering. The Cherry Blossom trees usually live 1,000 but some are known to live 10,000 years (that’s a crazy long time!) depending on the species. It takes 3-7 years to become full grown.

(319 words)