It takes but a leap
From this swaying flower
Of waterweed, up to
The cloud in the sky.
~Issa (The Year of My Life: Trans O. Haru)

For a small child it is Against the Odds to slide down – alone – with arms spread wide!
It takes but a leap
From this swaying flower
Of waterweed, up to
The cloud in the sky.
~Issa (The Year of My Life: Trans O. Haru)

For a small child it is Against the Odds to slide down – alone – with arms spread wide!
I write, erase, rewrite,
erase again,
and then a poppy blooms
~Hokushi

Lost in Translation challenge for this Thursday is to show the effects of red next to black.
Purple butterflies
fly at night through my dreams.
Butterflies, tell me,
have you seen in my village
the falling flowers of the wisteria?
~Yosano Akiko*

Sleeping Enya submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
Did you see in the shadowy woods
a branch grew, leaves came out
of a girl’s pliant extended arms
and quickly became a tree?
Did you see?
A youth stood by the tree,
took off his deep blue coat,
and in a moment became a dove?
(The telephone keeps ringing, ringing.
No one answers, nobody is there, today is Sunday)
… ~Shinkawa Kazue*

*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
The autumn flowers
of my prayer bear
seeds of paradise
~Kin’ei

My gift to you…a Deer Park Dharmacast
https://soundcloud.com/deerparkdharmacast/2017-01-22-thay-phap-hai
Silently
time passes.
The only life I have
submits to its power.
~Hatsui Shizue

submitting this profile image in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge.
My old body:
a drop of dew grown
heavy at the leaf tip.
~Kiba

I have the delusion
that you are with me
as I walk through the fields
of flowers, under the moon.
~Yosano Akiko*

*cited:
Women of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
Sweet and sad
like love overwhelmed
with long sighs,
out of the depths of the willow
little by little
the moon appears.
~Yosano Akiko*

arboreal
I found myself drawn, not to this tree, but to the shadows playing upon its trunk. Image submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge.
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
when i awake
i wonder
if the color i saw
in my dream
was real
or imaginary
was it red?
i turn back
towards the word red
but the color is gone
what i thought was
being alive
is only various colors
reflected and
scattered
in my mind
sun setting
turned the windowpane orange
shower spray
was a diamond color
so i thought
now only the memory
of color remains
the window
and the shower spray
have vanished.
~Yoshihara Sachiko
I found this video, The Pattern behind Self-deception, at Ted.com by Michael Shermer interesting as well as entertaining. Hope you find your self smiling.
The leaves of the bush clover rustle in the wind.
I, not a leaf,
watched you without a sound.
You may have thought I paid no attention.
~Kenrei Mon-in*

*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
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