Poetry History Month 2013- Day 1 ‘Dear Sakura’

Day 1: Dear Sakura

Dear Sakura

By 2Deep 

Dear Sakura

You are our Spring’s Ohaiyou Gozaimasu

Peaking around monuments

Greeting the sun

As it climbs from behind the handshake of a District and a Commonwealth

Dipped in a tidal basin

Like a letter in a bottle

Washed upon land

You are a time capsule

A reoccurring memory

A welcoming reminder of a friendship

That deemed us worthy of such beauty

A symbol of life

Strength

Courage

And history of a nation

You’ve traveled from the front side of the world

To bring us a piece of your culture

The second batch of determination

You’ve survived the distance to bring forth a connection

A bond

You are our gift

A present we’ve had the opportunity to return

When the tides were turned

You are where spirits go to rest

Our Nation’s clouds clustered in rows of birch

The fastest way for us to touch the sky

Tell me

How do your flowers grow?

When Old Man Winter refuses to leave

We wait for you

When Jack Frost dances on your branches

We pray for you

When the dawn of a new day reveals itself

Revealing an uninhabited cocoon

With blossoms too bold to be contained

We witness you

Line the streets by the thousands

Just to visit you

For you are the “Beginning”

The start of a beautiful season

We drink you in like

Sakurayu as the sight of you marries

Japanese with American

You Yamazakura

Wild Cherry Blossom

We scatter you on American soil

With Sakura Matsuris

We honor you

These Cherry Blossom Festivals say how much we welcome you

From Macon, Georgia to Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Your beauty remains

We are friends

Sisters on distant lands

Sakura, Sakura in your native tongue

Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom in ours

The floral Persephone

You are ours until next season when we bid you Ja-ne

Until then….

We’ll capture your beauty from sunrise to sunset

Along the tidal basin

In our nation’s capital.

With Jefferson, Roosevelt & King watching over you

You are one of our Nation’s gifts.

Sakura, Sakura

It is your season to blossom.