Change – Choka – July 19, 2016

another passing
another moment of change
another heart-break
more tears to water my cheeks
and each moment feels
like my heart can stand no more
yet the road goes on
and the wheels keep turning ’round
another passing
another moment of change
but life continues
each morning the sun rises
the cocks crow loudly
the rain still falls – winds still blow
telling me all’s well
I miss you, my once good friend
there’s no passing here
you only gave in and up
I cry for the dead
they are forever gone now
they have no choice left
their fight is over
it’s for you that I despair
for you my heart breaks
this other kind of passing
this other moment of change

© Gsk ’16

B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond – July 16, 2016 – Write a Choka or Shadorma about “Change”

Morning Haiku and Waka – April 28, 2016

alone –
a swan swims into view
flowers blossom

§§§§

cold morning walk
north wind freezes the blossoms
snow dusts the mountains

§§§§§§

on this spring morning
looking at the snowy mount
and cherry blossoms
turning brittle on the trees
still – the birds huddle
no song fills the morning air
grey clouds hang heavy
and the northern winds whistle
ringing the wind chimes
making the trees bow low
and then for a moment –
a single ray of sunshine
escaped through the clouds
a single blackbird
began to sing his spring song
in the herb garden
a new sprout raises its head
there’s no denying
life’s warmth is a breath away
just waiting to be perceived.

§§§§

the stone wall
behind this screen holds up
my red clay tiled roof
and the nest of two sparrows
hear them twitter happily

© G.s.k. ‘16

NaPoWriMo – Choka – April 13, 2016

a silent minstrel
sat at dawn his fingers limp
(the blue sky streaked red)
reminding him of lost friends
a song dangled there
(just out of reach but so near)
he touched the taut strings
and struck a sweet cord
then, heard a sistrum jangle
the music began
flowing like a spring river

he sang of karma
he sang of resurrection
of life – birth and death
and of red dawns and sunsets
o’er the mountains and the sea.

© G.s.k. ‘16

“The choka (長歌 long poem) was the epic, story telling form of Japanese poetry from the 1st to the 13th century, known as the  Waka period. Most often the Japanese poet would write epics in classical Chinese. Still, the occasional poet with a story to tell would tackle the choka, the earliest of which can be traced back to the 1st century. It describes a battle and is 149 lines long.

Originally choka were sung, but not in the Western sense of being sung. The oral tradition of the choka was to recite the words in a high pitch.

The choka is:

• a narrative.
• syllabic. Composed of any number of couplets made up of alternating 5-7 onji (sound syllables) per line. In English we can only treat the onji as a syllable.
• unrhymed.
• concluded by a hanka, an envoy in the form of the waka, 31 onji or sound syllables in 5 lines with 5-7-5-7-7. “han” meaning repetition, the hanka is to summarize the choka. The word tanka is often substituted for hanka or waka (they are all rooted in the same 31 syllable, 5 line form, their root seems to make them interchangeable with only subtle differences to separate them.)
• Another way to write a choka  is to write several katauta (5-7-7 syllable stanzas).
• The poem can be as long as you like and in classical times there have been choka with hundreds of lines.

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Written for NaPoWriMo inspired by the mandala and words found on 1sojounal NaPoWriMo: Day 13:

minstrel, dawn, strings, blue, flow, fingers, jangle, dangle

Invisible – Choka (Reprint) – January 3, 2016

he’s invisible
just sitting there in the street
we all walk by him
and don’t really see him
from New York to Rome
homeless – living in the streets

through embarrassment
or is it indifference
now we look away
they’ve become invisible
those people no longer seen

© G.s.k. ‘15

Blessed are the Poor – Choka – (Reprint) January 3, 2016

this scrap of paper
found in a tattered notebook
poems for misfits
in a world of mad ravens
frayed social weave
where the orphan needs courage
lost in hiraeth
for Eden isn’t of this world …
benedictions flow
from the rich and the potent
who rummage deeply
in their sterile souls seeking
how to keep – not give
except for a few marbles
in a Christmas-time stocking
generosity
found in a five and dime …

hypocrites in church
on a hot Sunday morning
hearing the words
spoken by a homeless man
nod your heads then say – Amen!

© G.s.k. 15

A Christmas Lai – Experimental Choka – December 25, 2015

Photo Credits

Look, as this new day is born
Peaceful is this cold morn’
Bells ringing across the land
Say violence is banned!
Today, Christmas day
Hear now, listen to my lai:
Let’s cleanse our hearts of woe
Joyfully shall we now go
To celebrate our joy
‘Twas born Mary’s boy!
Then, the seed of peace was sown,
Something we’d never known,
Pray that it may now grow strong
And fill our hearts yearlong,
With love, hope and peace.

© G.s.k. ‘15

When I first discovered choka, I also discovered that this poetic form is all but extinct, though some modern Japanese poets have written a few and there is a small movement to try to revive it, it’s mostly in the West that the choka is finding new life.  Now it’s possible to find “classical” (either 5-7-7 or 5-7-5 syllable count) choka written by American or English haiku poets and very interestingly we also find some experimental choka – variations created by Western haiku poets.

In 2013, I tried my hand at creating an experimental choka a Rhyming Choka : 7-6-7-6-5 syllable lines  repeated 3 times … rhymes in couplets until the last line.

For a little more information you can click these links (there are many more, and these are not necessarily the best) Poet’s Garret, The Poet’s Collective, KUJAKU POETRY & SHIPS

Carpe Diem Special #188 Georgia’s 4th, another choka

Seven Days Before Christmas (7) – meditations – December 24, 2015

Haiku Meditation

in the night
a siren passes
this Christmas eve

flashing lights glare
Christmas trees line the streets
and homeless beggars

shops full of goods
credit cards over-drawn
it’s Christmas time

preparations made
news of the world is of war
inside people’s homes

no peace nor goodwill
brighten the world on this day
and death takes its toll

§§§§

Choka Meditation

wonderful ideal
denies dark reality
mankind seeking peace
a seed planted long ago
we are all one race
religion – a link to God
our planet our home

to overcome finite thought
a difficult task
to love who is different
outside our closed minds
takes so much work – so much time
no sweet sentiments
though they give us some hope
will change our cold hearts

illumination
strips off these darkened veils
allows the warm light
to penetrate in our souls
and makes the ideal – our life

§§§§§§§§

Tanka Meditation

sitting in this room
surrounded by light and love
Christmas glows this morn
this splendid ideal of hope
a gift yet unopened

© G.s.k. ‘15

Haibun

The last episode of Carpe Diem Seven Days Before Christmas is “meditation” don’t be afraid.  I’m sure that many know the history of the world, including the creation of our modern Christmas.  Nor can we deny that in humanity’s long history there has ever been a time of true peace, nor are we so blind not to see inequality, poverty created by the rich or fanaticism born of narrow minds.  One could fill volumes of what is wrong with this world and indeed there are people who do just that and become very popular creating movements of hatred and destruction.  Our hearts sing the loudest when we sing for vengeance.  That’s how we are made.

The only hope for true peace is to understand who we are.  We must understand that our hearts are more swayed by hatred and fear than love and hope, because that’s the easiest road;  It was woven into our DNA in a time when we lived in a savanna and our survival depended on fighting to save our lives.  However, in these millennium, humanity itself has changed.  Our creations help many enjoy a life which is carefree and without want and we could extend this to all if we realized that now that instinct for hatred is not only demode, but terribly dangerous to our very survival.

Sweet dreams of sugar plums won’t dance in my head tonight. My dreams are turned towards a vision of one world, one people and one holy thought – peace, with or without belief in a religion.

the path is thorny
the goal just beyond our reach
don’t be afraid – love

© G.s.k. ‘15

Carpe Diem Seven Days Before Christmas 2015 #7 don’t be afraid (meditation)

A Ghost Story – Choka – December 21, 2015

 

there it walks alone
in the dusty corridors
visiting old loves
and memories grown pallid
a strange ghost is this
who at every turn
neither moans nor howls
only touching this old world
with sweet nostalgia
over the rough stony stairs
it leaves no signs
of its illusive passing

unlike the wayward
its life had known fulfillment
and this pilgrimage
is a sentimental journey
awaiting those left behind

© G.s.k. ‘15

| GHOST| ROUGH | DUST | STRANGE | TURN |

Weekly Writing Prompt #15

 

The Narrow Road (13) – Choka – December 20, 2015

in the willow world
praying, they sway, their tears fall
walking a narrow road
outcasts these orchids must go
travelling alone
drifting on the ancient sea
of rain and clouds
renewing their lifeless vows
with the setting sun
these wilted flowers are cast-off
at dawn with moon-set
as white froth beats on the shore

lonely travellers
go on as all travellers go
seeking redemption
in the warmth of the Saviour
follow then the middle road

© G.s.k. ‘15

* Wu-Wei – in Taoism (which Zen incorporates) this is cultivation of a mental state in which our actions are quite effortlessly aligned with the flow of life. It is also often translated as “the middle road” by some.

Carpe Diem #883 journey through the rough north of Honshu: a rough sea; in one house

Exhausted by the labor of crossing many dangerous places by the sea with such horrible names as Children-desert-parents or Parents-desert-children, Dog-denying or Horse-repelling, I went to bed early when I reached the barrier-gate of Ichiburi. The voices of two young women whispering in the next room, however, came creeping into my ears. They were talking to an elderly man, and I gathered from their whispers that they were concubines from Niigata in the province of Echigo, and that the old man, having accompanied them on their way to the IseShrine, was going home the next day with their messages to their relatives and friends.

I sympathized with them, for as they said themselves among their whispers, their life was such that they had to drift along even as the white froth of waters that beat on the shore, and having been forced to find a new companion each night, they had to renew their pledge of love at every turn, thus proving each time the fatal sinfulness of their nature. I listened to their whispers till fatigue lulled me to sleep. When, on the following morning, I stepped into the road, I met these women again. They approached me and said with some tears in their eyes, ‘We are forlorn travelers, complete strangers on this road. Will you be kind enough at least to let us follow you? If you are a priest as your black robe tells us, have mercy on us and help us to learn the great love of our Savior.’ ‘I am greatly touched by your words,’ I said in reply after a moment’s thought, ‘but we have so many places to stop at on the way that we cannot help you. Go as other travelers go. If you have trust in the Savior, you will never lack His divine protection.’ As I stepped away from them, however, my heart was filled with persisting pity.

in the same house
prostitutes, too, slept:
bush clover and moon

© Basho (Tr. David Landis Barnhill)

Seven Days Before Christmas (3) – Choka – December 20, 2015

red, blue and yellow
lights and decorations glow
brightening our hearts
on this longest winter night
with family and friends
toasting the season with cheer

the tree stands prepared
dressed in baubles and tinsel
now here we await
the dawn of Christmas morning
as we sing “Joy to the World”

© G.s.k. ‘15

 

light of the world
reflects in silver and gold
christmas tree clothed

© Chèvrefeuille

Carpe Diem’s Seven Days Before Christmas 2015 #3 decorations