It's A Garden Party - "I Am Restored by My Decline."

This feature, originally known as Saturday Farmer's Market, was created by Heather at Capricious Reader, and then hosted by Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made on.

As I Watched my Japanese Maple go from kindling to flame in just a matter of days, I thought of the terminally ill Clive James and his wish to live long enough to see his own tree, a gift from his daughter, in flame once more.

Diagnosed with leukemia (among other maladies) in 2010, and not expecting to live much longer, he wrote his valedictory farewell, "Japanese Maple." But as of this post Mr. James is still with us - and still working hard.

 

QUOTE of the DAY:

"I've got a lot done since my death."

Japanese Maple
- Clive James

Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.  
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.  
Breath growing short  
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:
 
Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see  
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls  
On that small tree  
And saturates your brick back garden walls,  
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?
 
Ever more lavish as the dusk descends  
This glistening illuminates the air.  
It never ends.  
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,  
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.
 
My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.  
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.  
What I must do  
Is live to see that. That will end the game  
For me, though life continues all the same:
 
Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,  
A final flood of colors will live on  
As my mind dies,  
Burned by my vision of a world that shone  
So brightly at the last, and then was gone.