Buddhapada

Tags

Bo-Tree, boussokusekika, Buddhapada, Shakyamuni

 

Shakyamuni prints,

wept over by a woman,

were then petrified.

On each toe, a conch proclaims

post-Enlightenment wisdom

from the Bo-Tree, to the world.

 

Today’s Tanka

Tags

flint, Shard, tanka

(Photo from herboyves@blogspot.com)

 

 

A blue and white flint,

embedded in the chalk soil:

perhaps pottery;

carelessly shattered vessel;

shard from Life’s jigsaw?

Attraction

Tags

attraction, Buddleia, bussokusekika, butterfly

 

You, white Buddleia,

are a butterfly magnet;

generous hostess.

How do they all know to come?

What attracted me to you?

Teasles

Tags

bussokusekika, Goldfinch, teasles

Another bussokusekika:

 

(Photo by Renardeau, Ardenne, 2005)

 

TEASLES

 

Today the teasles

were pale green and soft lilac,

swaying in a breeze,

but, in a few months, Goldfinch

will eat brown seeds all winter.

Holy Cow!

Tags

choka, cows and rights of way, Right of Way

Now I am experimenting with the Choka form.  My understanding

of its structure is 5,7 X 4, then 7, followed by an envoi 5,7,5,7,7.

Maybe I should have reserved it for a more public theme, rather than

a private one?  You tell me!

 

Holy Cow!

 

 

I opened the gate

and noted you cows had gone.

I have Right of Way.

You were on the bank

opposite to me.

But I still felt quite anxious.

Your calves now bigger,

you seemed absorbed in grazing.

Cows can’t cross a stile.

A man with a dog,

confidently strode past me.

Cows, please don’t see them!

Last time you crossed the bridge and

I turned and fled for my life.

 

 

Muntjac

Tags

bussokusekika, Dumbleton Hall, Japanese poetry, Muntjac

My first example of Bussokusekika.  All you Japanese poetry experts

out there, have I got it right?  I am using the structure 5,7,5,7,7,7.

 

(Photo by Nilfinian… at Dumbleton Hall.

Wikipedia)

 

Muntjac deer, freeze-framed,

hoping that you are unseen;

your ears are alert.

Every sound I make, you hear.

Your rasping bark at mid-night

lets me know you are still there.

 

Dilly-Dallying?

Tags

Abel Martinez, clerihew, Dali, DNA, Port Ligat, Van Vechten photographs

(Carl Van Vechten, photographer. 

Library of Congress.  Wikipedia)

 

Salvador Dali,

Maria Pilar Abel Martinez claims that you got pally

with her mother at Port Ligat.

The DNA sample should sort out that.

100 Poems Explained by a Wet Nurse 9

Tags

cuckoo, Hokusai, Saigyo, samurai, wet nurse, wisdom

 

81 onwards….

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Who is the cuckoo –

my lover, the moon… that bird?

The morning after!

 

(Visipix.com)

 

The wheel of fortune…

yes, no one can stay it.

Who knows what it brings.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Even in the hills

there is nowhere to find peace.

Life’s never- ending.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Even samurais’

significance can be lost

in past, or present.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

The moon has fooled me

by shining through cracks in doors.

Sublunary love!

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Is Saigyo’s sadness

to do with the world, himself,

or, indeed, with both?

 

(Visipix.com)

 

After the showers,

the fir trees’ needles still drip,

as my tears trickle.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

How much happiness

can one heart bear and how

much weight can reefs take?

 

(Visipix.com)

 

I waited for love

and my maids waited as well.

Then we fell asleep.

(Visipix.com)

 

He already leaves,

even though I tried so hard.

I’m not crying now.

100 Poems Explained by a Wet Nurse 7

Tags

emperor, Hokusai, Maskao, wet nurse

More in the Hokusai series!

 

(Visipix.com)

 

The Emperor praised

the eight-fold branch of blossom.

Next time we’ll bring trees!

 

(Visipix.com)

 

When the rooster crowed,

you said that you had to leave.

I’ve heard that before.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Maskao – why you?

You turned celibate and then

told the guard, not me.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Eventually

you are bound to catch a fish,

if you are patient.

 

No Number 66

 

(Visipix.com)

 

My heart on my sleeve;

tears are on display, but see –

no one really cares.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

We shared a pillow,

but nothing happened- really!

People are gossips.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

At night, all is gloom;

everything seems much worse,

bathed in soft moonlight.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Maple leaves in streams

may look beautiful, but we

have our work to do.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Ordinary life

goes on in every season-

even in Autumn.

 

 

 

100 Poems Explained by a Wet Nurse 10

Tags

cricket, Hokusai, kelp, Mount Hiei, wet nurse

91-99- (no 100)

 

(Visipix.com)

 

The cricket’s chirrup

makes a difference- details

matter in love too.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

My sleeves wet with tears

and waves tell no secrets.

My child is quiet too.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Collaboration

in Nature and in men too

achieves good results.

 

 

(Visipix.com)

 

No number 94…..

 

 

Priests on Mount Hiei

wear such impressive robes,

but what do they reveal?

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Old men wouldn’t mind

if ladies would sweep them up

along with the leaves.

 

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Burning kelp extracts

the salt from the seaweed but

not from all my tears.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Riding on the back

of our forebears, we can see

a lot more that way.

 

(Visipix.com)

 

Until they’re re-born,

misery caused by soldiers

will be repeated.