August 19, 2025

FROM BLOSSOMS by Li-Young Lee

FROM BLOSSOMS by Li-Young Lee

Jean and I arrived at a remote campsite in New Hampshire last night. We received the gift of no phone or internet access and enjoyed a quiet morning reading and delighting in roadside peaches and blueberries. We are reminded by this beautiful poem and how deeply we are connected.

Enjoy the peaches, blueberries, and each other.

FROM BLOSSOMS by Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes this brown paper bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend in the road where we turned toward signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins, comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar, but the days, to hold the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Invitation: “There are days we live…”

Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms” from Rose. Copyright © 1986 by Li-Young Lee. boaeditions.org.

You can also find the poem at this link: https://poets.org/poem/blossoms-0 

See and hear Li-Young Lee read From Blossoms at this link:

https://youtu.be/ApMG6YQb6OI?si=X6cND3p-LVuna3I6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Young_Lee