BONSAI

The poem "Bonsai" by Edith Tiempo is about love and how people imbue certain objects with
love for a person, and those objects become the symbol of love. Edith Tiempo starts out her
poem by describing what she does with love. She folds it to make it smaller so that she can
keep it in a box, hollow post or shoe. Because love is an abstract concept and has no physical
form, she is obviously talking about objects.

These objects are easy to keep, and, thus, they become the keeper of memory and of the love
that is held for the person. In a sense, they are a physical manifestation of love because they
can be held and touched, and they remain constant in form. So even if the love itself fades, the
object remains, and it is evidence of the love that was experienced. More, it is evidence that
love is real because these objects are concrete and not abstract. Because of them, she is sure
that love lasts until the world ends.

Laji 97