Gogyohka*
December’s snow
smothers the earth
you bury me
under drifts
of cold looks
spring blossoms
with rainbow colors
now frost-withered
to one hue
your flower heart
morning dews
scatter
on the autumn wind
as do my tears
unlike causes yet the same fate
the gusts
of the autumn wind
chill
the teardrops of dew
that are mine
as always
the river rapids
lure away
both blossoms and leaves
yet cobbles lay still
I pawn
Drink Alone by Moonlight
at a river tavern
gazing at the moon
pondering if Li Po is mad at me
sea birds
grace
sky and sea
that boundless expanse of blue
into which I dive
a white carpet
of sand
drinks my tears
as I walk back and forth
along the shore
the sea
inside my heart
surges every night
churning up the waves
only to recede at daybreak
lying
on the white sand
I feel
its moisture
my first love angst
the poem
is the death of a poet:
his old self
put down on paper
read at least by one
I gaze
from the height
of my study
gauging the world
by the size of solitude
I scoop
the moon from a river
of words
that runs through
the bottom of my heart
awake
I dream of being a butterfly
does he dream of me…
who cares
in the world of red dust?
(Note: Red dust is a
Buddhist set-phrase for the world and its passions)
Gogyohka Sequence
A
Four Act Passion Play
devotedly
I pray
yet He listens
absently
a four-decade old story
my heart
is a sponge
sopping up the tears
with which I wash
my prayers
I cleanse my heart
in prayers
before Him
whom my mind has doubted
seventy-seven times
no more waiting
for Him who is hidden
I hang
on the cross within me...
a faint echo, it’s finished
*Gogyohka
What is
Gogyohka?.Gogyohka (pronounced in four syllables with all hard
g's, as in "good") literally translates as "five-line verse". It
is an evolution of the great Japanese tradition of short verse,
but unlike its predecessors Haiku and Tanka, it has no fixed
syllable pattern. There are also no conventions governing
content and no assumptions about what is considered to be
appropriately "poetic" language. Indeed Gogyohka's accessibility
and its power to speak directly to the heart and mind stem from
the simplicity of its form, its frequent use of the everyday
vernacular and the unwritten rule that almost any subject matter
is game.
~Matthew Lane, translator of Enta Kusakabe's booklet,
Gogyohka.
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