Thursday, July 2, 2009

Jacaranda

reaching through
the morning mist
shedding drops of
amethyst

leave the green to
elms and pines
leave the gold to
mums and mines


let your branches
spread and set
a swaying crown of
violet

a kiss from God
and from Ms. Sessions
in each blossom
as it beckons

shame the sky
through every hue
he proffers, never half as
blue



12 comments:

Julie said...

Joaquin, it's great to see you again! I keep saying this, but thanks for posting while you were gone. I'm not sure how I'm going to vote on your poll, because I love both the old and new poems. Old or new doesn't matter to me. I love reading them all!

My aunt had a Jacaranda tree, and it was pure heaven. I love "shedding drops of/amethyst." You have captured the beauty so well. I love it all, but my favorite stanza is the last. Beautiful!

Karen said...

joaquin - I'm so glad you're back, but your weekly postings of past poetry (love that 'litteration, LOL) were wonderful! (Now you've got me going!)

Anyway...let me collect myself long enough to say that I hope you accomplished all you needed to do and are able to find some time for you now.

I'm with Julie on the voting, although I lean toward the new poetry, maybe because I detect a little more darkness and grit in it, and we black turtlenecked English majors love a little Hamlet thrown in! Truly, I really loved the older work, too, so I will probably have to go back and reread the past few weeks to decide.

Now for this one: I've never even heard of a Jacaranda tree, but your photo is beautiful and the "shedding drops of amethyst" and the "swaying crown of violet" are exquisite images. I was going to Google "jacaranda", but I think you've told me everything I need to know. Beautiful work. I love rhyme!!

Welcome back!

Catherine Vibert said...

Joaquin, I'm so glad you're back! It was thrilling to see you on my blog again. :-) When I read this, I realized that I really am going to have to plant a Jacaranda tree. The poem was as delicate as the flowers, and I had to wonder who Ms. Sessions is (hopeless romantic that I am).

I have to agree with my two sisters above on the voting thing. I love both the old and new, and I do see differences, but they are not differences in preference, just in who you were at the time of writing.

I hope you got to that ocean and let the sand slide out from under your heals.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

When I was little, we used to visit my aunt in Miami, FL. Mother would drive us down and we would stop at all the little interesting spots along the way. It took us four days to get to Miami. We used to stop off and see the tall, black-haired Seminole men wrestle gators in a pit(before my days as an animal activist - it's probably the reason I became one!) ride the glass bottom boats at Silver Springs, and bought bags full of oranges at a grove called Maggio's. But, I digress...

Aunt Ada had a big beautiful Jacaranda tree in her yard. It was so purple. We used to play underneath it on the carpet of petals.

Thank you for bringing that to mind with your exquisite poem! This is so perfectly rhymed and metered. It's like reading Shakespeare - dewy and glistening, like A Midsummer Night's Dream.

My favorite stanza -

leave the green to
elms and pines
leave the gold to
mums and mines

I concur with Julie, Karen, and Cat, I enjoyed your poetry from your earlier collection and love what you are doing currently. Our poetry changes with our experiences. I really don't know how to vote. I thought My Fair Lady was one of your best - old or new. I love your whole body of work so far, Joaquin. So nice to have you back. *?*

cristi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Silly Girl said...

wb, jc!
I've missed u :)

pc
the comment removed was me, wrong account :P

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

Joaquin, i have never seen a jacaranda tree, but knowing your poetry, it is easy to fall in love with something you have just heard of.
i am so glad you are back. i really liked your old poems... but somehow my preferences are for the new ones... :)

Aniket Thakkar said...

Welcome back.

I think somehow I could find a deeper connection to the old ones you posted while you were away.

I know the new ones are much better writing style wise. But its like Godfather part 1 and Godfather part 2.

No matter how great Godfather part 2 is, one must connect with Godfather part 1 to truly appreciate Godfather part 2. :D

I just love 'em all.

Glad to see you back.

trooping with crows said...

Welcome back, jc. Good to "see" you again.
I also have never heard of this tree. I love the animation you've given it. Like Mom, as always, this is also my fav stanza...

leave the green to
elms and pines
leave the gold to
mums and mines

When I read it I really just shook my head as if to say 'no, I just can't believe the brilliance of these simple lines' and read it 2 or 3 times more. There are so many lines of yours that I am try to memorize and store them away for use later!
Well done, so glad you're back with us.
(PS) "pussycat, pussycat" up top really makes me smile because I recite that rhyme to my 2 year old! "I frightened a little mouse under the chair!"

Anonymous said...

The frangrance of your poetry embraces my senses and I am there, seeing, touching, sniffing the jacaranda. Beautiful!

joaquin carvel said...

thank you all for coming back around. i missed you - it's great to be back.

julie - thank you - glad you liked the older stuff (and the new). it's funny about jacaranas - like the smell of cinnamon or a certain song - they can be lightning rods of memory.


karen - they are remarkable things, as long as you don't mind purple petals dropping all over everything. there are some streets lined with them and when they are all in bloom it's breathtaking. thank you - all is well and the break was perfect.

cat - you should! (though you may experience some envy from your neighbors.) "Ms. Sessions" is actually kate sessions, who introduced the jacaranda (and many other wonders) to southern cal. there's a park in san diego named after her. and i did get down to the beach (& the water) :)

lin - (whose comment arrived by email due to blogger bugs) - thank you - i didn't think of it as brave, but i will now :). and i agree that fearlessness trumps "expertise" any day of the week.

k.- that's what i love about them - they are the west coast's answer to cherry trees - indellible imprints. and i am pretty sure that is the first (and possibly last) time a poem of mine has even conjured shakespeare - wow. thank you! funny about "my fair lady" too - i'd almost forgotten about it - but glad i found it.

sg - thanks - missed you back.

lgl - that is an incredible thing to say - thank you. when you see one i hope it's in full bloom (the photo doesn't do them justice - when they're at their peak they look impossible).

anniquez - thank you - i like your take on the old vs. new - a little more raw but maybe a little more open or natural - less polluted maybe? i'm not sure. but i'll take the godfather analogy!

troop - thanks - it's good to be back - that was a long month. and if/when you ever have cause to summon a line or two, please let me know - that you would is bewildering/incredible to me.

morningjoy - thank you for the beautiful comment.

finally, full disclosure about "old" & "new" poems - i've never dated my poems, probalby because i almost never stop messing with them - when i don't have anything new to write, i go back and noodle with things i've already written. so the line is pretty blurry - i've actually posted a handful of "old" poems before (mostly back in '08), i just didn't qualify them as such. i guess it's neither here nor there - it just seems fair to mention it since i asked. (though the poems i posted last month were ones i haven't seen in 4 or 5 years, and i did leave them [almost] completely alone. for whatever that's worth.)

Jannie Funster said...

leave the gold to
mums and mines

I loves that line.