9. The Distinction of Bloom (6.11.25)

The first stanza of Berry's 19. (2014 Sabbath Poems)

penstemon digitalis

"Rising out of the crowd of lowly

foliage on the wood floor, a few

days in June, the white penstemon

risks the distinction of bloom.

At the top of the slender stem

the cluster of flowers appears,

not surprising for it is known

from other years, but as if suddenly

returned. Each tubular blossom,

pure white, five-lobed, opens

to reveal in its throat seven stripes

of most delicate purple, the middle stripe

the longest, with three shorter ones

symmetrically spaced on either side."

I cannot stop contemplating that line - "The white penstemon risks the distinction of bloom."

Blooming is a distinction. A distinction sets something apart - a difference that draws attention, admiration - what else? The distinction creates risk for the white penstemon. What are the risks for a flower? What are the risks to/of blooming things? What blooms other than flowers?

What truth is this revealing about the penstemon - but also, about the human condition?

About me?

The remainder of the poem:

"For this, flower and watcher have not

waited or prepared, but merely lived

and the time of bloom has come.

For whose delight? The watcher gives

his sole certainty: "For mine." And what

depends upon this small culmination?

An ecologist of sorts, the watcher

does not know, but by its beauty

he is taught to answer: "Everything."

This is the Sabbath, the place, the rest

from which we go to work. From here

the economies and politics of husbandry

are quietly attested in the heart."

For whose delight? The watcher.

And who is the watcher?

What depends upon this small culmination? Everything.

How do you know? Its beauty has taught the watcher

.

Poetry. Taut truth, as Ferlinghetti says.