The Sun Goes Down Alone

Gillian Welch: I Dream a Highway

Perhaps
the flowers appreciate
the full significance of it.
They are not cowards,
like men.
Some flowers glory in death
--certainly the Japanese
cherry blossoms do,
as they freely surrender
themselves to the winds.
Anyone who has stood
before the fragrant avalanche
at Yoshino or Arashiyama
must have realized this.
For a moment they hover
like bejeweled clouds
and dance above
the crystal streams;
then, as they sail away
on the laughing waters,
they seem to say:
Farewell, O Spring! We are on to eternity.
--Okakura Kakuzō
The Book of Tea

L. J. RYAN
(1960--2015)
repose en paix