If someone asks
about the mind of this monk,
say it is no more than
a passage of wind
in the vast sky.
~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
Trans: K Tanahashi
poetry
100 days…72nd day
In town
there are sounds
of flutes and drums.
But in this deep mountain
only a pine rustles.
~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
Trans: K Tanahashi
100 days…71st day
The fireflies’ light,
How easily it goes on
How easily it goes out again.
~Chine-Jo*
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
Trans: K Rexroth & I Atsumi
100 days…70th day
See and realize
that this world
is not permanent.
Neither late nor early flowers
will remain.
~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
Trans: K Tanahashi
black & white sunday: always there
a pheasant’s cry –
resounding in the mountains
the voice of silence
~Enomoto Seifu*
the voice of silence…always there…waiting
*cited:
Far Beyond the Field
M Ueda
100 days…69th day
This phantasm
of falling petals vanishes into
moon and flowers …
~Okyo*
*cited:
Japanese Death Poems
Yoel Hoffmann
100 days…68th day
Coming, all is clear, no doubt about it.
Going, all is clear, without a doubt.
What, then, is it all?
~Hosshin*
*cited:
Japanese Death Poems
Y Hoffmann
100 days…67th day
Children,
let’s go to the mountain
to view violets.
If they scatter away tomorrow,
what can we do?
~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
Trans: K Tanahashi
weekly photo challenge: partners
at one place
it goes through darkness –
the ring of dancers
~Hashimoto Takako*
Michelle’s photo challenge for the week of Friday, June 24th is : Partners,
“…share an image of partners. A pair, a trio, a sextet; people, building, plants — what ever you choose to shoot, give us subjects that are in tune with one another.”
*cited:
Far Beyond the Field
M Ueda
100 days…66th day
The stars pass.
The moon passes.
Blue clouds pass above the mountains to the north.
The years go by.
~Empress Jito*
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
Trans: K Rexroth & I Atsumi
100 days…65th day
The colors of the flowers fade
as the long rain fall,
as lost in thought,
I grow older.
~Ono no Komachi*
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
Trans: K Rexroth & I Atsumi
100 days…64th day
I can no longer tell dream from reality.
Into what world shall I awake
from this bewildering dream?
~Akazome Emon*
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
Trans: K Rexroth & I Atsumi
a meditative journey 
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