Fallen Leaves and a Solo Broom: a Lament for Japan by John Walford
I am pleased to have had a lament for Japan by my friend John Walford. I will let the image and the poetic words speak for themselves.
“Fallen Leaves and a Solo Broom”
How time can change the way we see,
Familiar things from another year.
This lone broom, waiting to sweep
Some scattered leaves from yesteryear.
Ivy drooping over a green-stained wall,
The sloping road, and red-paved path,
Waiting in innocence for a passer-by,
To take the broom, and sweep the leaves.
Who could have known, July last year,
It might not be a gentle hand that seized
The broom – nor that the earth would shake,
The sea would roar, sweep all away – but fear.
— A lament for all lost and suffering in Japan,
and a prayer that time would witness the country
return to the graceful beauty of the single broom.
–JW, March 26, 2011, and in admiration of
Jacob Schere’s poetic vision of Japan.
Thanks John for such beautiful thought provoking words.
Originally posted at John Walford’s blog Only Connect on March 26, 2011.