When the world's beauty becomes enough
紫陽花 Hydrangeas
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Love fades. Dynasties fall.
The soft shadow memories.
Beauty, that fleeting touch, receding like waves into time unknown.
The gentle drop, clinging on.
Rain pours. Hydrangeas sway.
Only you can feel what stirs in your heart —
the rain, the wind, and the petals once gathered. The first line of this poem came to me yesterday, on a pouring day.
I knew I had to do justice by completing it — and I’m happy that I got to take a moment to write this poem.
Early Summer is the season of hydrangeas or 紫陽花 ajisai as they are called in Japan.
Ajisai has several flower meanings, including grace and harmony. It is also closely tied to the ideas of impermanence or 無常 mujo and the beauty of fleeting things. Typical during this tsuyu 梅雨 plum rain season, hydrangeas also represent gratitude for the blessings of water and nature.
Things break. Loved ones die. Relationships change. Seasons shift. Memories blur.
But when I look at the world - changing, fragile, and in their withering beauty - they become enough.
Previously…
See all previous posts related to the theme of ~ Seasons ~
The rain comes without warning, emptying all that it needs to vent, then vanishes. Opening space and stilling time.
I love this poem!! Especially when it’s turning from all these big impermanent moments to the quiet realisation that only we ourselves really know what’s inside.
Ah, Peek Gee. I love this poem. In fact I love the whole post, the hydrangeas, the photos, the name and the Japanese connections with hydrangeas.
The way the first line echoes with the fifth is lovely: Love fades. Dynasties fall, echoed by Rain pours. Hydrangeas sway..
When i was a kid, hyrdrangeas grew wildly around the drain under the downpipe of the girls' bedroom. It was dismissed as a "wild, stinky flower". Nowadays, it's sold at shops. I always thought it was beautiful and loved the way it would grow, uncatered for, wildly around the wet areas. When I was seen to be admiring it, I was told to "get away from the stinky plant".
it's wonderful to know that it means grace and harmony and gratitude to water. Thank you for this lovely post!