OctPoWriMo Day 26 – Morning Haiku and Waka – October 26, 2015

Jujube Tree

under the jujube tree
three sparrows chatter with glee
free fallen fruit

under the fall moon
a civet owl calls – who who
in the jujube tree

under this roof lives
a cat and four students
in the garden
the cat climbs the jujube tree
hunting for gormless sparrows

 © G.s.k. ‘15

Though the fruit of the jujube is often called red date, Chinese dates, Korean dates, or Indian dates, they are in fact nothing at all like a date.  They look (and taste) like tiny apples as I discovered this fall at my son’s house.  Bastet

Haiku Horizons – Under

OctPoWriMo – Day 26

OctPoWriMo Day 24 – Troiku – October 24, 2015

Photo Credits

Tanabata Rain*

falling rain
magpies flock to the wheat fields 
lovers forgotten

falling rain
each drop a painful tear
no summer wishes

magpies flock to the wheat fields
far from the river
no bridge is formed

lovers forgotten
Amanogawa uncrossed
a year of sadness

© G.s.k. ‘15

 

Carpe Diem #842 Tanabata Festival

* “Orihime (Weaving Princess), daughter of the Tentei (Sky King, or the universe itself), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (Milky Way, lit. “heavenly river”). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (Cow Herder Star) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet.”

OctPoWriMo – Day 24

OctPoWriMo Day 23 (Regrets) – Echo Verse Poem – October 23, 2015

I follow endless streams across the sky
– I
Watch the contrails weaving between a tree
– Free
Coming – going they’re never still
– Will
Inner peace – help me remain …
– Restrain
This ancient wanderlust  which fills my soul
– Control
Insistent visions of a new far off shore
– Ignore
The constant whispered insinuation that enthralls
– Calls
Echo – echoing across my mind
– Intertwined
With visions of migrant birds and jet planes
– Banes
Are the cursed contrails in the last light of red sunsets
– Regrets

© G.s.k. ‘15

Echo Verse:  An Echo Verse is when the last word or syllable in a line is repeated or echoed underneath to form a rhyming line, normally the last echo line becomes the title to the poem.

OctPoWriMo Day 23

OctPoWriMo Day 22 – Trinet Wordleling – October 22, 2015

Hummingbird moth
[Nexus nunchi]
Lissome avian – from flower to flower –
Gamboled with bonhomie – puncturing-sucking nectar …
Clay pottery
Holding plants
Suddenly shattered

Predatory bird
Swooping down
Had attacked the moth’s tenable position
Which flew laterally in a vacuum
Of safety
Avoiding neatly
Getting et

© G.s.k. ‘15

This is a scheduled post, since today I’m in Padua for my son’s graduation. Thanks for reading this post.  Georgia (Bastet)

1.Tenable (capable of being held, maintained, or defended, as against attack or dispute) 2. Lateral 3. Avian 4. Lissome (supple, flexible) 5. Nunchi (the subtle art of listening which allows you to gauge other people’s mood and respond appropriately.) 6. Gambol (to skip about, frolic) 7. Puncture 8. Nexus 9. Pottery 10. Trachea 11. Vacuum 12. Bonhomie (frank and simple good-heartedness; a good-natured manner;friendliness; geniality.)

 

Mindlovemisery’s Monday Wordle – Mindlovemisery’s Photo Challenge# 82, October 13, 2015 and B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond – Trinet

OctPoWriMo Day 22

OctPoWriMo 21(The Sea) – Free Quatrain – October 21, 2015

Echoing voices in the wind –
Rumbling waves call unto me …
In sombre black unhappiness,
Between yesterday and tomorrow.

“Come to me – I will keep you safe”
The sea speaks in her persuasive tones
“In me you may forget the past –
In me avoid your lost tomorrows.”

Walking down this sandy beach –
Broken shells and empty bottles
Lay in the sand forlorn … forgotten –
Flotsam thrown-up by the sea.

“Oh mighty mother you speak to me,
Of safety in your loving arms
But this flotsam that you’ve left behind
Sings to me another rhyme.”

Echoing voices in the wind –
Rumbling waves call unto me …
Yes,  I think I’ll stay yet for a while,
Between yesterday and tomorrow.

© G.s.k. ‘15

This is a scheduled post, since today I’m in Padua for my son’s graduation. Thanks for reading this post.  Georgia (Bastet)

OctPoWriMo – Day 21

OctPoWriMo Day 19 (A Solitary Beach) – Cascade Form – October 19, 2015

On a solitary beach I watch the waves
Their swelling and ebbing reminds me of life
In this moment that is the here and now

Wheeling in the space between the clouds
A sea gull’s plaintive cry filters down to me
On a solitary beach as I watch the waves

The swelling waves crash on the shore
And in their ebb leave flotsam treasure troves
Their swelling and ebbing reminds me of life

Gulls and waves and flotsam combine
In a mystical whirling dancing vision of time
In this moment that is the here and now

© G.s.k. ‘15

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Please take note that I will be going away for my son’s graduation ceremony in Padua and will not be able to link on Wednesday and Thursday, though I will schedule my daily poems for OctPoWriMo and will link them on the proper days upon my return.  Thanks – Bastet.

This poem is written in the Cascade form  which was created by Udit Bhatia, and is all about receptiveness, but in a smooth cascading way like a waterfall. The poem does not have any rhyme scheme; therefore, the layout is simple. Say the first verse has three lines. Line one of verse one becomes the last line of verse two. To follow in suit, the second line of verse one becomes the last line of verse three. The third line of verse one now becomes the last line of verse four, the last stanza of the poem. See the structure example below:

a/b/c, d/e/A, f/g/B, h/i/C

OctPoWriMo – October 19, 2015

OctPoWriMo 17 (First Snow) – Trinet – October 17, 2015

snow fell
last night
whitening the mountains
chilling the green valley
at dawn
wood doves
bubble

city
sleeps
and I observe the dawn
wrapped in my woollen shawl
the trees
still green
shiver

first rays
of light
stream over the hill tops
bathing my world in pink
and fresh
winter
thoughts

© G.s.k. ‘15

 

Written for: Mindlovesmisery’s Menagerie – B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond – Trinet

Note: the Trinet form is 7 lines with word counts of 2,2,6,6,2,2,2

October 17, 2015

The Execution of the Sage – ABC Poem – October 16, 2016

Alas, alas there came a sigh
Barely heard above the wind that night.
Ceaseless thoughts of pandemonium
Devoured the ancient sage’s mind who whispered:
“Ergo, I’m doomed it would seem,
Featureless to become, forgotten!
Good Gad!  What a tawdry end –
Honoured once, but now forsaken!”

Ill treated by his King, this well-love sage,
Judged to be the wisest of all men
Knelt before his doom, under the axe
Laid upon his wizened neck.

Many a tear fell in the square that day, yet,
No one dared to take up his cause …
Odious is the lack of courage – ’tis
Prince among the pavid heartless masses.

Quake now people numbered are your days
Recall that moment, for now, you fall with your sage!
Slain because he took up your cause …
Thwarted by a king’s vanity and a people’s trepidation.

Under the grey November skies of his
Xenophobic country he died
Yielding his soul with this last phrase:
“Zounds but this steel is bloody cold!”

© G.s.k. ‘15

October 16, 2015

OctPoWriMo Day 16 – Choka – October 16, 2015

The Warrior

under the moon light
in the last days of autumn
the warrior stood tall –
loosing her bow her arrow
made a perfect arc
then returning unto earth
fell in an arbour
draped in red and orange leaves –
a lone raven crowed
and two grey wood doves bubbled
the cold wind whispered –
she sighed in her keen knowledge
that snow would soon fall
pulling her woollen cape close
she looked one last time
then turning she walked away
remembering him
only as a summer breeze
she – one with the night
continued to walk her path

there in the moon light
of the last days of autumn
the warrior once stood
her woollen mantle drawn close
as softly fell a snow flake

© G.s.k. ‘15

Originally, the choka or long poem was an epic poem relating deeds of honour, love and other stories. It was more often than not sung and many were passed down only orally in that form. It was a form borrowed from the Chinese (in Japanese waka) – as were many other things in those far off days, including writing and Buddhism.

The choka can be of almost any length, because its form depends on alternating phrases (or lines) containing five – seven sound (onji) units (which we’ll call syllables).  The end of the poem ends using two lines of seven syllables. So the form is five/seven/five, five/seven, five/seven, …. , five/seven/five/seven/seven (which creates a tanka).

October 16. 2015

OctPoWritMo Day 15 – Tanaga – October 15, 2015

 

 

Vibrant reds and yellows glow
Brighter under rain and snow
But once the snow melts away
All that’s left is slushy grey

My heart beats now just for you
And you say you love me too
Did you say that to LynnGay
Whilst kissing her yesterday?

© G.s.k. ‘15

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I’ve chosen the Tanaga style for this poem. The Tanaga is a Filipino style of poetry with four-line stanzas with the syllable count of 7-7-7-7, and a rhyme scheme of AABB. Tanagas traditionally don’t have a title per se. I’ve written this form once before, here.

October 15. 2015