Hakone Gardens: Winter

Mountain
peaks
like a blanket
over toes.
Path wends
along layered green fabric edges
multiplying in loops through gray gardens of stone lanterns
on combed gravel,
across circled stepping stones.
Gardener trims great trees
with tiny scissors
in the shadow of a teahouse
built without nails.
Water trips
down granite
chips
stones
boulders
into the oval pool
where orange and white koi dart
beneath an arched bridge.
Murmuring giants, the redwoods shelter,
calm.
Bamboo colonizes,
crowded yet courteous.
Camelias tease--
promise scent
but give only waxy, perfect leaves
and peony buds that morph into almost-roses
so that what is false
is also true.
Bonsai
slowly rooting in shallow loam
offers its tiny seed
to the valley
and then the next mountain
but, oh--
so slowly.
One path.
Many journeys.