Richard Alan Ruof

Departure of the Blossoms: into Skies of Eternal Spring Richard Alan Ruof

The poems in Departure of the Blossoms continue the narrative of Return of the Martyrs, as three martyrs return after four centuries to view modern society and to rejoin those from whom they were separated. In their experiences they discover the dissolution of marriage and family, the state of normless society, and the switch of priority from love to material wealth. Once more they witness that rulers, opinion makers, and commerce impose upon a nation the values of a few elites. However, the process is thorough, widespread, and rapidly advancing in modern society. The ultimate effect of the poems is to compare the eternal with the momentary and to challenge the reader to consider the loss of the higher identity. In spontaneous ways the poems assert that love is eternal, reconciled by divine compassion and renewed in the afterlife. They ask: will an essential capability of human nature eventually be lost? The story that pervades the poems was given to the author to warn that the desire for personal gain, position, and power of peoples and nations needs to be placed second to the cause of relieving pain and sorrow. For this concern is of an eternal nature, as is the human spirit.