Ficus Religiosa
Aug 3 2021
A pear
in the shape of the Buddha
ripening in a tree.
A pious man
who learned to raise fruit
in his own special moulds,
harnessing nature
to human conceit.
Like a bonsai tree
sculpted hedge
manicured garden,
we confine, breed, select.
Are never content
to let the forest flourish
live lightly in its shade,
reap its medicine
husband its fruit
glean its fallen wood.
Does this honour
or disrespect the Buddha,
who for 7 weeks
sat beneath a tree
and achieved enlightenment?
A sacred fig
left just as it was found;
the man changed,
the tree did not.
While we persist
in making idols to our cleverness
insisting nature serve.
And will the orchardist
let his precious likeness fall
to be subsumed by earth,
a sweetly ripened Buddha
fat with fertile juice?
Or if he eats the final fruit
what then?
What irreverent iconoclast
would dare?
There was a photo essay from a few years ago that is reprinted in today's Atlantic.
One picture – the one I used to illustrate this poem – really struck me: not for any particular beauty or awe-inspiring quality, but for its oddity. And also for its incongruity: a pear still ripening naturally on its tree that is also a sculpture clearly rendered by a human hand.
So, does this honour the memory of the Buddha? Or does it diminish him, converting his likeness to a clever curiosity, not to mention an exercise in the ego of its creator?
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/07/an-appreciation-of-trees/534153/
No comments:
Post a Comment