From Blossoms – By Li-Young Lee

December 13, 2014

 

A special and loving friend sent me a link to the poem below – From Blossoms.  It created such a beautiful image for me related to how much we each carry inside ourselves given our life’s journey – Creativity, love, knowledge, passions, pain, joy, compassion, desires, and dreams – truly an orchard inside us that lends itself to give, to teach and to learn. The orchard inside each of us has grown from all of our experiences, failures and successes, hopes, reality and dreams.  Its growth has endless potential, full of endless possibilities as long as we continue to plant our seeds of beautiful and honest intentions, and nurture our intentions through our actions, thoughts, and feelings every day!

 

From Blossoms

By Li-Young Lee b. 1957 Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, 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.
Share this text …?

Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms” from Rose. Copyright © 1986 by Li-Young Lee. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

Namaste,
Ivonne
Poem link:

One thought on “From Blossoms – By Li-Young Lee

  1. Dear Ivonna:
    I saw your story on the Today show, and subsequently found your website. I’ve never done this before, but I wanted to reach out and thank you for your candor, your courage, and your incredible grace. Last year, in a freak accident, I broke my neck, and was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. My spine is repaired; my cancer is in a remissive state, but the scars from this event run deep. I’ve been a veritable prisoner of my fears, but watching you today… well. You give me hope. While my spine is not quite healed enough to sustain a jog, I certainly can walk, with the assistance of my trusty cane. I’ve tried, time and again, to move through my fear, only to fail, but no more. You have given me the gift of hope, and today, i will renew my commitment to life, to get out of my head, and away from my fears. As I find my way back to being whole, I will imagine you, by my side, head held high, and exuding strength and hope Thank you, Ivonna. You are the epitome of the word “inspiration.”

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