then comes the blossom

Giver of life, with flowers you write,
with songs you give warmth,
with songs you give shade,
to those who are to live on the earth.*

'The sacred comes to us as beauty, in warm colours and sounds; and we humans approach truth through flower and song, that is in xochitl in cuicatl.' (Irarrazaval 1996:106)

Silence my soul.
These trees are prayers.
I asked a tree,
tell me about God.
Then,
it blossomed.**

I have waited for the blossom to come. Too soon there is a flash of blue, a blaze atop the tree-green. Already it is falling, covering the ground below.

---
Diego Irarrazaval, "In Xochitl in Cuicatl of Women and Men in Latin American Theology." Voices from the Third World vol. XIX/ 1 June 1996, pp. 106-137.

*The words of Nezahualcoyotl, of the Nahuatl people, recorded in, Miguel Leon Portilla, Literaturas Indigenas de Mejico Mexico: FCE 1992, p.274

**In response to Irarrazaval, Chung Hyun-Kyung (1996:143) offered a poem from the Asian mystic, Tagore.