Bonsai by Edith Tiempo

All that I love were with me tonight. Well, maybe not all, because that would mean the world. But it was enough. And it was a moment I can relive for always. Do you know the feeling of being swept away? Of just losing yourself completely, just for a moment, or for all time, or both? That’s how it was. And it was the perfect way to end my birthday month, and it was just fitting, to be standing in that room, filled with strangers and friends, of people I’ll never see again and music that will be with me forever.

So, here, a poem for celebrating:

Bonsai
Edith Tiempo

All that I love
I fold over once
And once again
And keep in a box
Or a slit in a hollow post
Or in my shoe.

All that I love?
Why, yes, but for the moment-
And for all time, both.
Something that folds and keeps easy,
Son’s note or Dad’s one gaudy tie,
A roto picture of a queen,
A blue Indian shawl, even
A money bill.

It’s utter sublimation,
A feat, this heart’s control
Moment to moment
To scale all love down
To a cupped hand’s size

Till seashells are broken pieces
From God’s own bright teeth,
And life and love are real
Things you can run and
Breathless hand over
To the merest child.