a sunning frog taunts all predators to test their weight.
Frog Taunt [Senryū]
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Tag Archives: poetry
Deer in Grass [Haiku]
deer of summer - who'd blend with Fall's tawny grass - stand out.
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Towering Temples [Kyōka]
towering temples poke clear of the canopy: to be seen by god above, or not to be seen by people below?
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Little Doors to Nowhere [Lyric Poem]
I love a little door to nowhere, with no apparent reason to be. Not under a sign or in the square, but in a privy wall or thick tree. Somewhere one would least expect a door. Somewhere that begs the question: "Where to?" A place for mean rogues, scamps and whores? A hideaway that offers no clue. It would probably just disappoint: to learn the sanctum's private intrigues. Not some tough, sleazy speakeasy joint, or bohemian savants' league. And so, I never, ever knock, but let the story form in my mind - a tale to titillate and shock, one that leaves no misanthrope behind.
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Pebble Walks [Haiku]
crude tracks weave, merge, & part on the pebble beach: sober drunkards' walk.
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Pillbox Kitsch [Tanka]
what is this place, with its defensive bunkers on every rise? lasting vestiges of war, so unlike my childhood home.
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Patches [Haiku]
Silk Road Vagabond [Free Verse]
Dusty trails & caravans.
Traders & spice
slow walking
toward coin.
A thousand merchants,
a thousand tongues,
& lingua franca confusion.
Dazed & dreary
every eve.
Wired each morn.
Sleeping under starry skies
with long silences between
bleating goats or screeching hawks.
Dog, companion & security guard,
barks only when someone approaches,
and there is so much space
to lend wide berth.
Silk Road vagabonds
walk the path alone:
exploiting and dropping
opportunities at will.
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Infinite Regress [Free Verse]
The sweep of trees
forms a mandala.
The eye roams over it,
looking for a center
that doesn't exist.
Those roving eyes
rove & repeat:
caught in an
infinite loop.
And I wonder what hides
in the arc of trees?
What monsters mimic
the sinuous spine
of those pointy trees?
Whose eyes catch
the fine light,
reflecting back a
burning bright-yellow?
What lives unseen?
What flows unbidden?
What empties out,
but returns?
and returns?
and returns...
