Japanese Maple - Clive James

I was sad to hear of Clive James passing this week.  "Unreliable Memoirs" was a wonderful read and I have always admired his incredible way with words and sense of humour and wisdom.  So today we have maples and a Clive James poem.  Click on the title to hear Clive read the poem.

Japanese Maple, by 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.

‘Japanese Maple’ by Clive James, first published in the New Yorker, © Clive James, 2014

Yellows at Arashiyama

The plan for the afternoon at Arashiyama didn't quite work out, the scenic train was fully booked and due to Mary's supreme navigation skills and Googlemaps we didn't actually make it to the famous Bamboo Forest.  However "life belongs to the gifted" and we ended up walking along this beautiful river, away from the crowds, surrounded by fabulous autumn colour.  Bamboo forests are overrated!!

Autumn lights

When visiting Arashiyama, a neighbourhood of Kyoto on Saturday I was excited to discover the night illumination of the gardens at Hogon-in Temple.  The colours of the leaves were divine, and while crowded the walk through the delightful garden was magical.

Autumn Colour

I am back from a wonderful long weekend in Kyoto, where the autumn colours were superb. This was a small creek at Tofuku-ji Temple where the maples were divine and the crowds massive.

Sunday Kimono 8

Yes I have bought some kimonos.  I couldn't resist this pattern.

Golden autumn

Gorgeous golden maple in front of a bamboo copse at Showa Kinen Park.

Lantern and Leaves

Stone lanterns are another of my Japanese obsessions - so extra happy when the lantern is in a garden of maples as at Mount Mitake shrine.