“From China” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

   I thought: 
The moon,
Shining upon the many steps of the palace before me,
Shines also upon the chequered rice-fields
Of my native land.
And my tears fell
Like white rice grains
At my feet.

DAILY PHOTO: Mountain Contour

Image

Green Fields [Haiku]

the rice fields 
are at their most verdant;
scent of rain.

The Rice Gamut [Haibun]

Terraced rice fields. Some, in rectangular blocks. Others, following valley contours. In the tropics, all stages exist at once: The mirrored surfaces of flooded but unplanted paddies. The orderly stubble of freshly planted fields. The max saturation green fields, densely packed with verdancy. The tawny fields of heavy-headed ripe rice. One may pass all of these (and gradations, thereof) as one walks the narrow lanes that dissect farmland. People, birds, and animals transit the slender paddy levees, lending color to a monotony of vibrancy. Sometimes, a weather-beaten man or woman wades in the field -- feet wide and bent at the waist. Nowadays, people come from far away (sometimes even paying admission) to see these fields -- to see so much green packed under blue skies and to let that photosynthetic glory wash over them. 

mirrored paddy --
flooded but unplanted; a
child studies himself

lush green fields.
crows on the paddy dike
command the eye

tawny rice.
stalks bent under
grain-swollen heads 

DAILY PHOTO: Rice Terraces, Eastern Bali

Taken on December 29, 2022 in Bali

DAILY PHOTO: Rice Terraces of Ubud

Taken on December 23, 2022 at Ubud, Bali

Flash of Black [Haiku]

two roosters
on a paddy dike:
a flash of black