Pine/Flowers

so many petunias
and only one pine—
porch light flicks on


This photo reminds me of the elderly widow we met one recent night. As we walked by with our dogs, we stopped to praise her petunias. Her name is Mary and she told us that she was in her 90s but still loved to garden. She was very proud of these petunias that she said grew from only six plants.

It also recalls Bashō's famous quote,“Learn of the pine from the pine; learn of the bamboo from the bamboo.” At some level I understand what the great haiku artist was saying, go to nature and truly experience it, then you can write about it. But it's still a very hard task in this modern world that is so full of noise and distractions. And we (or at least I) are so much less willing to give ourselves the time it takes to really be in nature: to learn about the pine from the pine, the stars from the stars, and the sunflower from the sunflower bending so gracefully down toward the earth after fighting for months to rise above it.