Cherry Blossoms by Toi Derricotte

Cherry Blossoms

by Toi Derricotte

I went down to

mingle my breath

with the breath

of the cherry blossoms.

There were photographers:

Mothers arranging their

children against

gnarled old trees;

a couple, hugging,

asks a passerby

to snap them

like that,

so that their love

will always be caught

between two friendships:

ours & the friendship

of the cherry trees.

Oh Cherry,

why can’t my poems

be as beautiful?

A young woman in a fur-trimmed

coat sets a card table

with linens, candles,

a picnic basket & wine.

A father tips

a boy’s wheelchair back

so he can gaze

up at a branched

heaven.                     

All around us

the blossoms

flurry down

whispering,  

      Be patient

you have an ancient beauty.                                            

Be patient,                                  

you have an ancient beauty.

Our front yard's cherry blossom tree. I think everyone with one of these trees has taken this kind of photo, at least once!

This poem is from Toi Derricotte's 2011 book from the U of Pittsburgh Press, The Undertaker's Daughter. This is definitely a poetry book you want to get your hands on.

Spring in my part of the Pacific Northwest means Cherry Blossom trees suddenly full with white or pink flowers. Many towns planted these trees in rows or grouped them; driving around town means being overwhelmed with their bright spring colors. The blooms do not last long, but they are joyful signs of spring that one cannot help but look forward to their quick beauty each year.

Derricotte's poem exemplifies this. She has the poem's speaker purposefully going to a place--a park, probably--where there are cherry blossoms. Trees, of course, do breathe, so that first stanza is both a set-up and a scientific fact.

The second stanza provides us with a snapshot of what the speaker finds: she is not the only one who has come to enjoy the trees. I love that she, at this stanza's end, references the friendship between humans and trees. Derricotte slides that idea in there, but it is a huge idea--not every human feels a deep connection to nature, but those who do see it as a friendship, beneficial to all involved.

In stanza 3 the poet interjects a question, and it is a question all poets have asked of nature, acknowledging that no matter how descriptive our words, how great at writing, none of us can ever write anything as beautiful as the nature we write about.

The fourth stanza provides us with more people, and these folks are described in more detail-- a woman stting up a lunch among the trees and a father enabling his son in a wheelchair to get a good view from underneath. As with the second stanza, which had mothers, childrem and lovers, there is a lot of joy. (And notice that Derricotte never uses any word like joy. She describes and we feel it.) I love that we leave this stanza on the word "heaven" and the image of "a branched/heaven."

The blossoms are already falling, although Derricotte uses the word "flurry," which evokes snow and captures the movement of those blossoms perfectly.

The last two stanzas--couplets--repeat themselves, telling us what the blossoms are whispering to all those people and, by extension, all of us. It also seems to be an answer to the question posed earlier in the poem: we are all beautiful. Our creative work is beautiful. Not only that, it is an ancient beauty, just like trees. And isn't this the kind of reassurrance and support any good friend would give?

Happy Spring, everyone!