walking along the seashore
i heard my dragon
breathing
wave after wave after endless wave
of love
timeless and boundless
infinite
like every sun in the dancing blue
dazzling its light
and there too i saw him
in a threaded flight of swans
homebound, and, one thousand strong
singing all his ballads
to me
and just waiting for my soul to fly
together
hand in hand with his
all throughout this numinous sky
transplanted in LA
i discover delicate sakura and tall palm trees
blossoming together
It is now sakura season in Kyoto, Japan. And unexpectedly, to me, sakura are blossoming at the same time here, far away across the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles, where the tall palm trees are emblematic. Am I right to say that sakura will be the last thing to come to mind when thinking of LA? This city conjures three things: Hollywood, beaches, and palm tree lined boulevards. But quietly, sakura are here too, pink and light in this sprawling City of Angels.
When writing Japanese words in romaji, the Roman alphabet, we use the letter R to spell words that include the syllables: ra-ri-ru-re-ro (らりるれろ). For example, cherry blossom or sakura. But the sound is not a straight R-sound, like rah, ree, roo, reh, roe. It’s closer to something of an LR-sound, like lrah, lree, lroo, lreh, lroe… So it would be better to write sakulra, but then it would be mispronounced as sa-kul-ra. So maybe it is actually better to write sakula, and specifically for cherry blossoms in LA, sakuLA! Saku means to blossom. So sakula or sakuLA could have a double meaning: LA cherry blossom, or blossom LA—a unique variety of sakura only to be found in LA!
We are transplanted… in flowers, as peoples and languages, as ever changing and creative expressions of culture brought together by chance or by fate. Perhaps by love. It is something beautiful in the soil and it is something beautiful in the sky. SakuLA and palm trees blossoming together. Holding hands, we dance in the wind, pink and light.
Below is a flower-photo montage created by my phone, magically just on the day I started writing on the theme of being transplanted in LA and blossoming like sakura/sakuLA together with the LA-local palm tree. I did not choose any of the photos nor their sequence, yet the last photo is the same as the featured one above, which I had already selected earlier. Maybe it’s accidental coincidence. Or maybe it’s all the work of an angel—here in LA, in this sprawling city of angels.
this body
in the soft folds of kimono
also creases
gently
without resistance
to earth and to drifting stars
this body breathing, obi-bound, is a delicate dance
like butterflies in the wind
like waves of the ocean
rising and falling
weaving together all the days and all the nights into one endless strand
step after step
fold after fold
crease after crease
this body is singing
and dreaming
is birthing
anew
worlds of beautiful
dance is power
and an enigma, born
within this body primordial
this body animal and human
birthed in the flesh, blood and sinew
sweat, and an exhale
this body
naked raw and real exhibits
all that is
its fragility and eloquence unveils all that is
beautiful and terrible rich elegant and grotesque
life’s fabric
textured tight
unravels stores spun by fate
and by chance
by the known and the unknown
dancing
this body suspends stories in the passing light
of time
eternal and transient
this body dancing is poetics
movement and stillness entwined and
in the folds of love
the present
*art by yours truly
i once differentiated between worlds…
between something so-called normal, and
something other like magical
i knew the difference between
the everyday world and the extraordinary world
between fact and fiction
between reality and fantasy
but then…
you came into my life
you came dancing, spinning and singing, and yes…
turning
turning everything upside down, and
inside out
like the rabbit on the moon
you made me see anew
the extraordinary in the everyday
the fiction in fact
fantasy in reality
and now…
every day is magical
with you in my life
magical is everything, and is
my one world
and is
my new normal
with you
when it gets dark
do you think you should hunker down
and dim? disappearing into the darkness?
when it gets dark, my dear,
it is not time to dim
it is time, rather,
to turn up the sparkle
to sparkle with all your heart, and
with everything you’ve got!
what do you think all those stars are doing?
way out in the charcoaled skies of this universe?
yes, yes—it is time to sparkle
it is time to get your sparkle on, and
to sparkle with all your heart!
In my mind I was imagining a never-seen-before flower, one which blossomed only on the darkest of nights, on moonless nights—flowers which emitted little sparks and floating bubbles of light into the night. Like bees to pollen, moths would be irresistibly drawn to them. They would be called the “Sparkle Flower,” I declared to myself. I happened to be strolling through a neighborhood, a little moody and a little lost in my thoughts. And then, and just then, I saw this little painted rock in someone’s garden. “Sparkle with all your Heart” it said! It was as if the universe was reading my mind. “Here you go,” universe said, “this might not be the ‘Sparkle Flower’ of your dreams, but please go ahead anyway little human child, be your own Sparkle Flower and sparkle with all your heart.”
So I leave with you, dear reader, “Sparkle On.” Courtesy of the universe.
i did not come here just to love you
i came here
to be love
together with you
to dance
and in one another
come home
breathlessly with these deep sighing waves
eternally and endlessly
like stars
i came here
to be together with you
in love
Michiru Adrienne 