Siv Cedering

 Who can resist the glow of a firefly?

Here's a poem by Siv Cedering (February 5, 1939 – November 17, 2007), Swedish-American poet, writer, and artist.

A poet and fiction writer, Siv Cedering wrote many books in her native Swedish, as well as in English, her second language, publishing a total of 20 books and four works of translation. She also wrote plays, screenplays, music, and television programs, and was a widely exhibited painter and sculptor.

UKIYO-E *

What explanation is given for the phosphorus light
That you, as boy, went out to catch
When summer dusk turned to night
You caught the fire-flies, put them in a jar,
Careful to let in the air,
Then you fed them dandelions, unsure
Of what such small and fleeting things
Need, and when
Their light grew dim, you
Let them go.

There is no explanation for the fire
That burns in our bodies
Or the desire that grows, again and again,
So that we most move toward each other
In the dark.
We have no wings.
We are ordinary people, doing ordinary things.
The story can be told on rice paper.
There is a lantern, a mountain, whatever
   We can remember.

Hiroshige’s landscape is so soft.
What child, woman, would not want to go out
Into that dark, and be caught,
And be caught again, by you?
Let these pictures of the floating world go on
Forever, but when
This light must flicker out, catch me,
Give me whatever a child imagines
To keep me aglow, then
  Let me go.

--Siv Cedring

[from The Pushcart Book of Poetry, Edited by Joan Murray, Pushcart Press [2002]

Note: Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term ukiyo-e (浮世絵) translates as 'picture[s] of the floating world'. 

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