A poignant photo. I don't know why this decaying pile of blossom spoke to me but it did. It really needs no words, though various lines from T S Eliot's poetry came to my mind.
'And all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.'
TS Eliot
I never taught this poem, thankfully as it’s a devil with so many layers of meaning. But I know a little bit about it and the reference to fire, which can represent both destruction and also rebirth! I would guess that at the end of the poem he’s trying to say, ‘Everything will be ok!’
ReplyDeleteI loved teaching poetry and I would always say to my pupils, ‘ You haven’t got the poet in the room with you, to ask about this, and so you can’t be wrong with how you interpret it, as long as you say that it could be this but alternatively it could be that!’
Strangely, yesterday, I was looking at a similar pile of blossom and thinking, ‘See you next year’ and so I guess that the poem has a cyclical meaning to it as Nature is reborn, year in, year out …and that gives hope..at least that’s how I see it! 😁
And I think the first two lines come from an older nun, Julian of Norwich, "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." The beauty in flowers can be experienced from bud to last petals turning back to earth...if we are willing to see that these are all part of the process of life.
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