light penetrates a fissure,
illuminating a raw wound in rock.
Light Play [Haiku]
Reply
Cat & Burglar [Senryū]
a cat / burglar
brashly slips through a window
in broad daylight.
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Photographic Deception [Free Verse]
An overexposed photo
feels like it's from ages
ago --
decades past.
But it's from just the other day.
When I was there in person,
opening that shutter,
it didn't feel like the 90's,
but something about that photo
ages it...
and ages me.
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DAILY PHOTO: Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum
“Fluid” [Poetry Style #24] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]
Like water spilling over rocks?
Like a bead's roll across the floor?
Cliches, they fail to tell the story,
As no doll shows life's splendor.
But the Earth' unsupported spin through space,
As the heaven's pivot and sprawl for more...
If you could find how it all began,
You'd see it'll be as it was before.
The high and bright realm of the gods
Returns to nothing and nevermore.
And if you lived ten-thousand years,
You might find yourself in days of yore.
NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a translation of the twenty-fourth of the twenty-four poems. This poem has been alternately titled “The Flowing Style,” “Fluid,” “Motion,” etc. by varied translators from its Chinese title of 流动.
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Discovering Ruins [Haiku]
the trail rounds onto
ruins: an old stone wall,
leaning & twisted.
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Cloud Watching [Haiku]
on the hillside,
amid the wildflowers,
watching clouds shape-shift.
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DAILY PHOTO: Old Khndzoresk Cave Village
NOTE: This village of caves located on the wall of a deep gorge (Khor Dzor) was occupied until the late 1950’s or into 1960’s (depending upon who you talk to.) In 1958 a “regular” village was built nearby, and the residents moved into the new village. Lest one think this was just some tiny backward settlement, it was for some time the largest village in Eastern Armenia with over 8,000 residents serviced by some 30 shops, seven schools, and a number of professional service providers.
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Spring Green [Haiku]
grass, shaggy & green,
sprawls across the valley;
swallows race & jink.
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“The Knight’s Tomb” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge [w/ Audio]
Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn?
Where may the grave of that good man be? --
By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,
Under the twigs of a young birch tree!
The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,
And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,
And whistled and roared in the winter alone,
Is gone, -- and the birch in its stead has grown. --
The Knight's bones are dust,
And his good sword rust; --
His soul is with the saints, I trust.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 