Perfect Cherry Blossom Poems for a Changed Climate
Poems Giving Cherry Blossoms Amid Fossil-Fueled Seasons of Change
Gotcha! There’s no such thing as “Perfect,” except for you. You’re perfect.
“From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee
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.
“Notes on Inheritance” by Chelsea Dingman
to love. What will become of us
when it’s the child that is imagined?
Our gods: the fields under a hazeof mosquitoes. And lo, the stars’ white
fire. And lo, the splintered spines of sprucetrees. And lo, the disappearing hours.
I stretch my neck into the next life.
I breathe in the cherry blossoms & bomb-scent of aftermath. I don’t care why
I didn’t want this. I lean into myself.
“To A New Dawning” by Amber Tamblyn
Connect us,
to the cherry blossoms standing guard in full blush
while cops bloom ribbons of yellow tape at their gates.Us, connected
by airborne whispers between walkups,
of missed rhythm, longing for the public pull
of prior swagger,
“[Like the Japanese cherry blossoms wedded to the soil’s palm]” by Luther Hughes
Like the Japanese cherry blossoms wedded to the soil’s palm
planted in front of the train station; or the yellow-black dance
of the tiger swallowtail’s wings as it flees; or the echoes that follow
after I thunder loud against the kitchen cabinets; or the summer fire
hitched to the air we breathe—the chuckle of ash sneaking into our lungs;
or the way your eyes elope when you’ve had enough of my
tit-for-tat-I’m-right-your-wrong song; or wind—always, there is wind—
“Boketto” by Susan Rich
someone should tag
a word for the calm of a long marriage. Knowledgethe heat will hold, and our lights remain on— a second
sight that drives the particulars of a life: sea glass and salt,cherry blossoms and persistent weeds. What assembles in the middle
distance beyond the mail truck; have I overlooked oceans,ignored crows? I try to exist in the somehow, the might still be—
gaze upward to constellations of in-between.
”Cherry blossoms” by Toi Derricotte
All around us
the blossoms
flurry down
whispering,
Be patient
you have an ancient beauty.
Be patient,
you have an ancient beauty.
“Mother Country” by Richard Blanco
To love a country as if I was my mother last spring
hobbling, insisting I help her climb all the way up
to the U.S. Capitol, as if she were here before you today
instead of me, explaining her tears, cheeks pink
as the cherry blossoms coloring the air that day when
she stopped, turned to me, and said: You know, mijo,
it isn’t where you’re born that matters, it’s where
you choose to die—that’s your country.
“Biking to the George Washington Bridge” by Alicia Ostriker
It sweeps away depression and today
you can’t tell the heaped pin-white
cherry blossoms abloom along
Riverside Drive from the clouds above
it is all kerfluffle, all moisture and light and so
into the wind I go
Threat level: With the weather becoming more unpredictable, the blossoms are acting differently, blooming earlier and more unexpectedly, National Park Service arborist Matthew Morrison tells Axios.
While earlier blooms themselves aren't necessarily a bad thing, it’s a sign of our warmer, wetter climate.
The trees face threats from rising sea levels that cause brackish water to flow into the Potomac and Tidal Basin, says Morrison, which could kill the trees.
Solar radiation, which isn’t just detrimental to humans, can burn the bark on the trees if they’re not protected by a thick canopy layer, he adds.