Beauty Studies
David Ebenbach
Teacher, I think I do have that set of nested bowls/
in my heart this spring morning. But can you talk about the blossoms
without mentioning the sense of danger, like a snowbank overhead
for the avalanche? Or is it the danger of them leaving us? Already
the snow snows down as I leave to go home/
tangled feet. But it’s not danger at all, not unless you’re me
and you can’t accept beauty without sharpening knives somewhere.
So let’s say seeing them extends my life/ seventy-five more years,
seventy-five more years of not knowing,
but doing it under these low, bright clouds.
Late in your short life you still saw them,
and you warned us the beginning verse/ should not
resemble our faces/
budding cherry blossoms. But what about the final verse, or
the ones in between? Teacher who left us, you cured an aching head
with these blossoms, and show me how.
§
Note: Translations of Basho by Jane Reichhold.
David Ebenbach is the author of Autogeography, a chapbook of poetry (Finishing Line Press); The Artist’s Torah (Cascade Books), a guide to the creative process; and two collections of short stories—Between Camelots (University of Pittsburgh Press) and Into the Wilderness (Washington Writers’ Publishing House). Ebenbach has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. He teaches creative writing at Georgetown University. Find out more at www.davidebenbach.com.