The Arrangement Poem by Gene van Troyer

The arrangement’s born
growing in the heart
growing in the mind
growing outside
and you say bonsai grows
through the nature of things
each branch a path in the right direction
for the shaper and the shaped.

You say, small things
reveal the nature of all things,
and bonsai roots in the heart, trees
in the mind, and thoughts
are leaves in the sun.
And I say, you have given it to me,
this tension of amazement,
how arrangement moves between
creating.


(For Tomoko)