sun dips behind
buildings; early on a
Winter afternoon.
Winter Afternoon [Haiku]
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Category Archives: poem
“The Wind Shifts” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]
This is how the wind shifts:
Like the thoughts of an old human,
Who still thinks eagerly
And despairingly.
The wind shifts like this:
Like a human without illusions,
Who still feels irrational things within her.
The wind shifts like this:
Like humans approaching proudly,
Like humans approaching angrily.
This is how the wind shifts:
Like a human, heavy and heavy,
Who does not care.
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Still Waters [Haiku]
Winter morn:
still waters reflect each twig
of bare trees.
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“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound [w/ Audio]
The apparition of these faces in a crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
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Turtle Hills [Haiku]
One Eye [Senryū]
“Nightfall on the Tisza River” by Géza Gárdonyi [w/ Audio]
Up comes the Moon on the river,
Trees and grass quietly quiver.
Near Szeged a wooded island,
Od fishing barque, tied to the land.
By the moonlight, on this barque, old,
Sat a fisherman I am told,
Played a tune as well as he might,
Played it well, well into the night.
On the Tisza, velvet darkness,
Starry sky, the stars numberless,
Spread a shroud studded with diamonds
Radiating starry light fronds.
May have been this very spot, hark!
Right under this rickety barque,
In the very depths of the deep
An ancient king's sleeping his sleep.
His coffin is gold and silver,
Of iron is made its cover.
Up the river is glistening,
Down the ancient king, listening.
Translation by Frank Veszely in: Hungarian Poetry: One Thousand Years. 2023. Friesen Press: Altona, MB, Canada.
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Pansy Patch [Haiku]
Fearful Flowers? [Senryū]
“Ox” by Ikkyū [w/ Audio]
Among other creatures this is what I was.
Abilities depend on the realm;
realm also depends on abilities.
At birth I forgot completely by which path
I came.
I don't know, these years, which school
of monk I am.
Translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi and David Schneider in Essential Zen. 1994. HarperSanFrancisco.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 