Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

Kathmandu backstreet:
 at alley's end, grins Joker --
  global chaos face.

the falls are thin.
 the rains are hard. soon,
  fortunes will reverse.

the year shows its age,
 a coating of rust flushes
  the hilltops.

three crows circled up.
 their conversational look
  makes me nervous.

old pond,
 a frog jumps:
  "plop-splash!"

Original: 古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音; Romanized: furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

crossing a clearing,
 a deer disappears before
  eyes can lock on it.

by the green river,
 one tree prematurely 
  takes Fall colors.

a rotten log:
 turned into a work of art
  by fungi.

with taut anchor line,
 the fisherman's boat looks still
  in flowing waters.

Spring wildflowers
 cluster among the rocks; 
  sheep bells clang nearby.