National Poetry Month: “For The Love of Cherry Blossom Trees”

Writing was always freedom.

atypical

When I struggled in socializing with other people before I understood that I was atypical and saw the documentation of testing from my early childhood, books and the act of writing offered freedom.

When I learned other adults were unafraid to tell me their judgements of me as a parent of a young child with autism, writing became a safe haven.

Grateful for

In late 2020, I completed my first collection of Corrie poems called When We Danced in The Rain. I am proud of the fact that The Walled City Journal published “If I Call You Juliet” on the last day in March. “If I Call You Juliet” is the closing poem and my personal favorite. Today, The Deronda Review released its 2021 issue with my poem, “Six,” on page 22 to 23.

Of course, April is National Poetry Month. I have much to celebrate in 2021 as a poet. I celebrate the fact that two poems have been published from When We Danced in The Rain honoring my daughter, Corrie, and two more poems will be published by Radical Teacher this year.

But, I was a poet before my daughter.

I am a poet with my daughter in spirit.

For years, I experimented with different versions of poetry. I attempted prose poetry and memoir-in-verse. I searched for a common theme because it was difficult to write out a full memoir. What I got out as essays were published, but the stories were, and are, difficult to get everything out in prose.

“for the love of cherry blossom trees”

Around Easter, I started writing this never ending poem called “For The Love of Cherry Blossoms.” I told myself it was too long, but I could not stop writing it.

I was inspired by the fact my husband and father took out a dead tree in our front yard, and put in a Cherry Blossom Tree.

I cannot explain my desire of a Cherry Blossom Tree, but when my mother asked what I wanted for my birthday on May 14 …

I knew I could not possess the single being whose presence I most desired. I asked for a Cherry Blossom Tree.

I dream of Cherry Blossom Trees lining parts of our yard in the future. The tree is not far from Corrie’s Memorial Garden where we will transplant plants next Saturday.

When I wrote this long poem, I realized I could break it up into three poems. The three poems now hook a new collection of poetry, new and old, about romantic love, love for our children, family, and people. It allowed me to breathe new life into old poems and to hook in new poems.

Both of my children and my husband, John, are the driving forces in the collection.