DEPARTURE of the BLOSSOMS
into skies of eternal spring
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
DEPARTURE OF THE BLOSSOMS
The privileged plucked the fruit
Before it ripened.
Then in succeeding years
Indulgent loiterers
Picked the rosy blossoms
Solely for their pleasure,
Trampling under foot
The dreams of a people
And nature’s coming harvest.
Everywhere petals lay discarded,
Among dark shadowed trunks
On earth’s bleak curvature,
All life disconnected,
Beauty trampled in the sod.
Spouses of tragedy
Gazed back departing ways
Searching for lost lovers.
Miseries accumulating
Ever aggravated
A growing confusion.
Their offspring ate and drank
Bleak world and universe,
Mysteries of their bodies,
In aseptic classrooms
Where the Spirit God was prohibited.
Then one spring the blossoms
Departed down the wind-
Neither enjoyed nor picked–
In night of darkness swept
Only leaving behind
A bleak perspective.
That day in early May
Strong winds swept them away.
Down the rows of gnarled trees
Among barren branches
Departed the humble,
The caring–mourning, wailing–
As they harnessed fierce winds
To seek a destiny beyond.
For the ageless doctrines,
The eternal truths
Were by the generations
Forever forgotten.
“against all the gods of Egypt
judgment; I am the Lord” Exodus 12:12
REMORSE
As life grows old it often pales more lovely.
For as said faith, hope and love are eternal.
But when love is betrayed it becomes a jail
From which cold death directs its only release.
DEPARTURE OF THE BLOSSOMS
The privileged plucked the fruit
Before it ripened.
Then in succeeding years
Indulgent loiterers
Picked the rosy blossoms
Solely for their pleasure,
Trampling under foot
The dreams of a people
And nature’s coming harvest.
Everywhere petals lay discarded,
Among dark shadowed trunks
On earth’s bleak curvature,
All life disconnected,
Beauty trampled in the sod.
Spouses of tragedy
Gazed back departing ways
Searching for lost lovers.
Miseries accumulating
Ever aggravated
A growing confusion.
Their offspring ate and drank
Bleak world and universe,
Mysteries of their bodies,
In aseptic classrooms
Where the Spirit God was prohibited.
Then one spring the blossoms
Departed down the wind-
Neither enjoyed nor picked–
In night of darkness swept
Only leaving behind
A bleak perspective.
That day in early May
Strong winds swept them away.
Down the rows of gnarled trees
Among barren branches
Departed the humble,
The caring–mourning, wailing–
As they harnessed fierce winds
To seek a destiny beyond.
For the ageless doctrines,
The eternal truths
Were by the generations
Forever forgotten.
“against all the gods of
judgment; I am the Lord” Exodus
REMORSE
As life grows old it often pales more lovely.
For as said faith, hope and love are eternal.
But when love is betrayed it becomes a jail
From which cold death directs its only release.
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Book Details
About the Book
The poems in Departure of the Blossoms continue the narrative of Return of the Martyrs, as three martyrs return after four centuries to view modern society and to rejoin those from whom they were separated.
In their experiences they discover the dissolution of marriage and family, the state of normless society, and the switch of priority from love to material wealth. Once more they witness that rulers, opinion makers, and commerce impose upon a nation the values of a few elites. However, the process is thorough, widespread, and rapidly advancing in modern society.
The ultimate effect of the poems is to compare the eternal with the momentary and to challenge the reader to consider the loss of the higher identity. In spontaneous ways the poems assert that love is eternal, reconciled by divine compassion and renewed in the afterlife. They ask: will an essential capability of human nature eventually be lost?
The story that pervades the poems was given to the author to warn that the desire for personal gain, position, and power of peoples and nations needs to be placed second to the cause of relieving pain and sorrow. For this concern is of an eternal nature, as is the human spirit.
About the Author
After 34 years of long hours and very active service in the Christian ministry, the author evidenced failure of physical health and chose to retire. He began a regimen of long walks and withdrawal from tiring social involvements. During this time he sought answers to questions in his earlier life posed by unexplained spiritual happenings. At times during his daily routine he experienced miraculous events with startling evidence even seen by others. These events came with hints of verse which he largely ignored. When he at last investigated, he found them related to a Christian martyr and his wife.
After prayer and research, he began to write poems he was given. They present Christian experience in a modern secular society. In these situations he also experienced an unseen Christian presence and plaintive cries of faith. The author desired to write these events in poetry as the means of communication in which matters of soul and spirit can best be told.
In the poetry of Departure of the Blossoms the lives of martyrs over 400 years ago are portrayed in their sometimes terrifying and soul searching decisions. The characters and identities challenge the reader with radical decisions of life and death as they confess Christ.
Reading these poems brings the reader to question the modern style of Christian faith that is often characterized by comfort, luxury, and wealth rather than the willingness to surrender home, belongings, and family for the Savior who did so for them. Why do unknown martyrs enter our lives with flashbacks of their witness? After years of thought concerning these poems, the author views them as a lifelong mystery. They call us to a life of values, virtues, and experiences that lead into eternity. Still, the details of their origin remain a mystery.