the maple sapling flexes in the breeze, but holds its leaves
Autumn Sapling [Haiku]
1
DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Julian Price Memorial Park
Tea Master [Free Verse]
drink the wisdom -- you'll find it more in the heat than in the liquid subtle - like the flavor of tea in drinking it you'll discover: there is no tea, but the tea -- a tea-less tea the life in you the life in me melted into a mound of unity
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Long Shadows [Haiku]
Unclocked Hours [Free Verse]
Stepping out onto a city street in the cool, unclocked hours of the morning. One looks about, but not as one does in daylight -- i.e. in response to sound. Instead, one looks about in response to the lack of sound. A clawing sound from a burrowing rat isn't worth one's attention. It's the silence that calls upon the mind as to a sailor on shore leave.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
DAILY PHOTO: One Atlantic Center, Midtown Atlanta
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
BOOK REVIEW: Monkey: New Writing from Japan: Vol. 2: Travel ed. Ted Goosen & Motoyuki Shibata
MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 2: TRAVEL by Ted GoossenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: December 28, 2021
This anthology of travel-themed short writings by prominent Japanese authors includes: short stories, essays, poems, excerpts from longer works, and even an illustrated story [i.e. “The Overcoat” by Satoshi Kitamura.] The nature and degree of travel varies considerably with some pieces being travelogues or setting-centric fiction, but other pieces explore travel in a more symbolic sense (e.g. “Hell” by Kikuko Tsumura or “Decline of the Aliens” by Hideo Furukawa.] And one piece, “Cardboard Boxes and Their Uses” by Taki Monma deals more with the topic of being shut in, so it might be considered a study in travel through its absence.
The anthology includes works by literary stars such as Mieko Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, and Yasunari Kawabata, and showcases translation by some of the most well-know translators of Japanese literature. [The edition ends with a dozen brief statements by translators about what they have found particularly daunting to translate — not necessarily because the literal translation is difficult but because the elegance of the origin language can be lost to clunkiness in the translated language.]
Among my favorite pieces were “The Dugong” (a historical fiction story with a “Journey to the West” feel to it,) Haruki Murakami’s essay entitled “Jogging in Southern Europe” (which anyone who’s ever exercised amid people who don’t exercise will find amusing,) “Five Modern Poets on Travel” [particularly the tanka of Kanoko Okamoto and the haiku of both Hisago Sugita and Dakotsu Iida,] and “Every Reading, Every Sound, Every Sight” by Jun’ichi Konuma. That said, I don’t think there was a clunker in the bunch, each piece was well-composed and translated, and I’d highly recommend reading this book.
View all my reviews
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Autumn’s Elegy [Haiku]
Bleeding Leaf [Haiku]
each leaf bleeds red with its own blotched pattern in its own time
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
DAILY PHOTO: Bamboo-lined Boulevard, Cubbon Park
Tiger Riding for Beginners 