SpringScape: Breaking out of Winter
Click to enlarge.
We’ll let an old Japanese poet have the say on the photograph above of a magnolia tree blossoming forth in front of First Presbyterian Church along Virginia Street. This verse comes from the following website, and is offered in the spirit of letting go of those wintry discontents: “The verse below addressed to the Mikado Nontoku (313-399)… appears to be a nature poem; it is in fact an innuendo song. The poet points to the blossoms of spring and in doing so suggests that it is time for the winter discontents of the court to give way to a new fruitfulness.”
In Naniha see
the plum-tree’s blossoms.
The captive Spring has slipped
through Winter’s bars to flaunt
its floral sprays.
