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#21 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2010.


 © 2010 Andromeda Jazmon.

Doesn't this photograph take your breath away?

I love the intense colors, the sunlight on the petals. I also love that any time I want a dose of natural beauty, I can click over to A Wrung Sponge, and Andi (Andromeda Jazmon) will fix me right up.

Every day in April, most Poetry Fridays, and on many other days during the year, Andi will post a haiga -- a photograph paired with an original haiku. She's mastered the fine art of capturing "the essence of a moment" in both words and image. They are perfect opportunities for reflection and meditation, gentle reminders to slow down, breathe deeply, and appreciate what's around us. 

Just as Tanita loves limes, Andi is enamoured with figs. Her blog banner features a green fig from her tree, a gift from a bookclub friend. She first planted it "in the sunniest spot in my side yard and waited to see what would happen." This was her first fig experience, and through the years, as she watched the tree grow, and waited months for the green figs to ripen, she also experimented with a few fig recipes.

Today, she's brought a haiga sequence for us to feast on! It's so lovely to be privy to buds, unfurling, growth, ripening, harvest. Naturally, it's all gorgeous.

FIGS

sprung from brown sticks
little nobby green figlets;
whispered promises



hands unfold
in prayers of growing green;
slow budding fig




this fig's sweetness;
hiding flowers inside the fruit
fragrance distilled




once green and hard:
now luscious, purple figs
softly beckoning




one bite
reveals the world;
ripe figs




a soft dark shell
cradles scarlet moist seed;
heart's center

© 2010 Andromeda Jazmon. All rights reserved.

There, don't you feel refreshed and serene? Andi has now piqued my interest in figs. I've only eaten them preserved, as in Fig Newtons, but Len sometimes buys fresh figs from Whole Foods and devours them. I didn't realize the fig "fruit" is actually the flower of the tree. Flowers and seeds grow together to form a single mass -- and the flowers are never visible because they bloom inside the fruit/bulb. Pretty cool, no?