cultivating beauty with andromeda jazmon

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

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?

Speaking of Fig Newtons (which are called Fig Jamas in our house because I was always jealous my brother had a cookie named after him), Andi is sharing her recipe for Homemade Fig Bars! She’s posted beautiful step-by-step directions (with mouthwatering photos, of course) here. She uses a gluten-free flour mix, but says regular flour can be used, by adding 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. salt. We shall have to keep an eye out for fresh figs to appear in the grocery store! These do look yummy.

Thanks so much for this generous serving of peace, beauty, and deliciousness, Andi!

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Andromeda Jazmon is a library media specialist and mother of three who is known online as “cloudscome,” a moniker derived from her favorite Basho haiku:

clouds come from time to time
giving us a chance to rest
from looking at the moon

When not composing haiku or taking exquisite photos of her home, garden, and family, she likes to hike, bike, quilt, knit, experiment with gluten-free cooking, and wreak havoc compose amazing poems with the other Poetry Princesses. She reviews multicultural books and media for children and young adults at A Wrung Sponge, and posts even more photos (365 Project) at Sandy Cove Trail. I was quite pleased to learn that she’s also fond of Pooh! Obviously, her heart is in the right place.

Congratulations on earning your MLS degree, Andi!