Bashō's Road

to the small poem and the quiet voice within

1. Jujitsu Wiker 10.24.09 / 9pm

   Rare spun silk
   Asphyxiates her torso
   Her tranquil song
   Bound to no one
2. Don 10.25.09 / 12pm

   Thanks, Norb, she is truly one of the masters of tanka.
3. Hatto Fischer 10.25.09 / 8pm

   When I first came to Greece in 1966
   I fell in love immediately with Neraida,
   to her I swam out every morning in the bay
   of Gialtra on the island Evia, but then I had to leave
   and when I returned after the Junta fell in 1974
   I saw her again lying on the beach,
   a few years later her ribs seemed broken,
   no longer her nose lifted stiff against the wind
   for she was a fisherboat now missing her planks
   which all the men had torn out of her for making fire
   and so I mourn my love for that fisherboot now gone
   up in smoke to signal like Indians do she lives on
   where Gods steal man’s humor and chase Odyssey
   through the seas past such loves as my beautiful Neraida.
4. Norbert Blei 10.26.09 / 12am

   Interesting how Yosano Akiko inspired two such beautiful poems (above) in ordinary (extraordinary) commentary–Jujitsu Wiker and Hatto Fischer. I thank you both–and Don too, who knows the way of tanka and the resonance of small.

   Thank ALL of you, in fact, who take the time to comment on all the sites I try to maintain. Monsieur K. thanks you too. –nb

Get your page at outlawpoetry.com. Theme: Hemingway modified by Ravan.

Entries RSS Comments RSS