Possibilities
The winter prairie filled with
Pinwheels spinning
Gaudy illusions twirling
Amidst the dun-colored fields
Link: Possibilities to possibilities
Optimism turns to whimsy, can it be trusted? Or is it an illusion?
Possibilities
The winter prairie filled with
Pinwheels spinning
Gaudy illusions twirling
Amidst the dun-colored fields
Link: Possibilities to possibilities
Optimism turns to whimsy, can it be trusted? Or is it an illusion?
The New Year’s new moon
The scent of snow in the air
Can you hear the bells?
All the world sees time turning
Oh! The possibilities!
Link: the old year to the new year
Note: poem included in a correspondence to my friend, Volu-Ingibiorg
Silence and stillness
The old year creeping away
As if embarrassed
These quiet waiting moments
Of intense anxiety
Link: Such awful stillness to silence and stillness
After the snowstorm
Out in the bone-chilling cold
Such awful stillness
The frozen branches twisting
In their silent agony
Link: Quiet curtain of lace to Such awful silence
Twilight snow settles
A quiet curtain of lace
Shutting out the sun
Whisper-soft, the darkness falls
Fingers tight around my throat
Link: Swirling snowflakes to a quiet curtain of lace
Walking silently
Among the swirling snowflakes
Leaving no footprints
Someone that you used to know
Someone you can’t remember
link: shaken up snowglobe to swirling snowflakes
Empty sky blinking
Silently she cries, shedding
White frozen teardrops
Falling in all directions
Like a shaken-up snowglobe
link: pitiless sky to empty sky blinking, the falling metaphor also carries over
Final leaf falling
Floating gently to the ground
On a breath of wind
The naked maple shivers
Beneath a pitiless sky
link: blessings fall to leaf falling
The years pass as the
Year passes, yet your spirit
Still shines like the sun
May blessings fall upon you
Like snow on Mount Yoshino
Link: advent drifts in/the years pass
Written for my friend Saionji no Hana in honor of her birthday
I was so pleased to come across the Waka Poetry site again after several years. It has changed a lot and has a lot to look at!
Doctor Thomas McAuley of the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield (UK) runs the site. He announced the publication of 3 Japanese poetry e-books today for Kindle. They are:
McAuley, Thomas E. (2016) An Anthology of Classical Japanese Poetry: From Man’yōshū to Shinkokinshū (ASIN: B01MTUKF9K)
McAuley, Thomas E. (2016) Sanekata-shū: The Personal Poetry Collection of Fujiwara no Sanekata (ASIN: B01N47WSOL)
McAuley, Thomas E. (2016) Two Hundred Poem Sequences: The Entō Onhyakushu and Keiun Hyakushu (ASIN: B01N9BKS6A)
I gave them a look-over. Simply and nicely done. VERY reasonable prices compared to what poetry translations usually cost! The Anthology is $8, Sanekata Shu is $3, and Two Hundred-Poem Sequences is $2.99. Considering what Japanese literature books tend to sell for (unless you find them used, and even then! It’s a small market, after all…), these are an incredible bargain!
I was especially excited to see the Two Hundred-Poem Sequences book, since I am researching that topic now, and am trying my hand at a hundred-poem sequence myself.