Onlangs verscheen ‘Bloom’, de Engelstalige editie van Bloei van Arwen Gerrits (gedichten) en Rifka Lucas (tekeningen) . Tegelijkertijd kwam ook de derde druk beschikbaar van ‘Bloei’. Het is een prachtig cadeau om te geven ter gelegenheid van moederdag.
It began with the question to draw a garland. One of us drew, the other one thought, ‘why not write about what I am seeing?’
We found so many words in the garden together, while we were looking for flowers in the autumn. We’ve looked for flowers growing on peat soil, in the mud and during a dry spell, the sunlight draining all the colour away. Each flower, with its unique way of developing, its own shape and hue, emerged from thoughts sparked by conversations on desire, expectations, opinions, decline, wonder and joy.
Bloom began with autumn and to us, this is no paradox. We adore autumn, it feels as though all the seasons are blended in it. Perhaps because we are no longer spring chickens ourselves, too. We selected nine autumn flowers, three for each month. We fashioned a garland, a band of 36 flowers blooming in a wild garden. So, it became a year of making drawings and writings about life, parts of it, forming a collection.
The list of flowers remains incomplete, the words fall short in capturing our thoughts, feelings, and experiences yet to be had. We made our choices from what the garden offered us at that time and we reaped growth, friendship and connection. Whatever life will bring you, pick a flower, a poem, make a garland. For the seed, the bulb, the germ, the sprout will eventually bear fruit, a nut, a scattering by the wind and in doing so, proclaim the beginning of a new year. A life. That is what it means to bloom, a perpetual movement of life itself.
Sunflower
The ideas so grand,
the ideals so noble,
that we shall bow.
The sun so far,
the sky so blue,
that we nearly drown.
The will so strong,
the heart so heavy,
that we nearly succumb.
If we do not count the seeds
before the harvest is brought in.
Our happiness is put on a scale,
to handle with care.
The successes and failures
of great opportunity and fine idea.
No opportunity that remained untapped,
less tiring than idling.
The summer so languid,
the autumn so swift,
that we may blossom.
Winter is waiting,
spring is coming.
We rejoice in our seasons.
The sunflower is an annual plant in the Composite family and can grow up to 3 metres in height. This late summer flower symbolises the sun, love, happiness, lust for life, and represents mankind who has turned towards the light. Its seeds reduce the level of cholesterol.
