HAIKU
JAPAN
I thought your touch would
transform me but it made me
realize who I am.
JAPAN POWER LINES
Crosshatched power lines
blur the landscape, block my view
transforms your beauty
MT FUGI FROM THE PLANE
Sits on the table
of winter clouds, a surprise
dessert for my soul.
TINY SHRINES
Our neighborhood shrines
grants wishes and hears prayers.
everyday God for man
FROZEN FOUNTAIN
In winter music
doesn't trickle from bamboo fountains
frozen time without beat
GRAVEYARD
Guarded by Buddha
purple grows from grey gravestones
a crocus rises
YOU'RE FADING
Memories of you
fading, a mere gentle breeze
with seasons passing.
JAPANESE NEIGHBORS
Taps on the tile roof
the crow mimics their cleaning
snapping futon mats
SHUGI
Order, discipline
gone is spontaneous breath
creative freedom
ORDER OF THINGS
Wood, tile and concrete
Japans geometric landscape
pattern contrasts nature
HILL OF FAITH
Three shrines top the hill
made of matchsticks letting in
Summer's spiritual glow.
RICE QUILT
Rice paddies, chartreuse squares
layered, water reflecting Spring sun
elements that sustain life
PADDIES
Patchwork quilts of rice
monochrome green fluid fields
covering Spring's earth
HATTOGI
You are part of me
Your colors, your seasons,imprints
I am part of you
SUNSET FIRES
Burn it, burn it down,
watch that fire fill the sky, burn
your air, make us drown
SHODO - CALLIGRAPHER
A master paints words
strokes flow down like mountain streams
water from his soul
NIHON
Aesthetic society you were
Put up power lines, laundry poles
Took it all away
STORM
Clouds roll in like smoke
backlit by a fiery eclipse
eery sky remains
FUTON CLEANING
Pat, Pat, Futon mat
Tap it, tap it, again n again
Nippon housewives tune
EASTER EGGS
The Chestnuts dangle
from the tree on flower road
like Easter eggs
TALKING TO JAPANESE
I struggle with words
communicate to people
who can't hear my ideas
LOVE SCAR
The pain from a knife
and a kiss are the same
the scar's what remains
JAPAN
My Thoughts like the birds
tangled and caught in the wires
can't seem to get free
BACKPACKS ON THE TRAIN
What do they carry
chock full in tiny backpacks
besides tradition?
TEMPLE TILES
Curling temple tiles
tease me peeking through buildings
sakura blossoms sway
PAPERCUT
shadow of a ginkgo tree
oriental papercut
cast by April sun
RHYTHM
The hollow drum beat
of the bamboo fountain trickles
a buddhist chant
FORSYTHIA
Familiar blossoms
scents of different colors
tones of an East wind
GRACE
OH Nipon, Nipon
so much charm overshadowed
by blind ignorance
SUNSHOWER
A taste of Spring rain
from sudden clouds refreshing
a rainbow glistens
SNOW MOON
The snow moon slithers
between thickening clouds
a flake kisses me
MILKY WAY
God's gift from the sky
a basket of tiny stars
tied with a moonbeam
FULL MOON
August moon rests low
porthole to the universe
thru indigo sky
GOODBYE
All the time I had
is gone, I pack my bags full
with sweet memories
POET
I ponder deeply
a poets words so simple
and yet so profound
LOVE LOST
Yes, you have left me
but you have not gone away.
you rest deep inside
MARTHA'S VINEYARD COTTAGES
Ornate icing top
candy colored wedding cakes
Vineyard Bluff's statues.
VINEYARD BUTTERFLIES
Paisley butterflies
dance past gingerbread cottages
with the island breeze
GRAND CANYON
Miles of red canyon
casting shadows in sunset
a silent leaf falls
SEOUL
Brown clay kimchi pots
line balconies of high rises
new and old Korea
TOKSUGUNG, Seoul
Standing in a row
on ancient tile roof corners
the gods peek thru snow
POJANG MACHA
Huddled in plastic
they slurp hot soup for their souls
by kerosene stoves
HAN RIVER
It's playfulness gone
desolate under thick fog
a ferry fumbles
NO INCENSE BURNING
Lifeless winter temples
empty kimchi pots clustered
incense turned to dust
MIST
I left Seoul today
I can't see the city behind
the haze and my tears
KOREA
Goebe sands swirl round
desert needles sting my eyes
Hanguk's Spring blur
COLOR OF WINTER
Red, green, blue roof tops
heavy in soot and grey haze
are tones left behind
HARVESTED
Burnt fields, black of death
await a new green harvest
hazy hills hover
WEST HILL
Crosshatched feathered trees
line hilltops like the great wall
cold winter skyline
love once filled a hole
a heart's place never empties
since that love is gone
a place remains left behind
it is now whole filled with tears.
shimmering in sunrise
we awoke to love that lay
on petals like pearls
sadly as the flower opened
love's moist dew rolled off into tears
shimmering fireburst colors, swirling yellow and orange
fall leaves fluster past windows, cupped in cold winter winds
glowing like gold from mountains, too soon they will turn to dust
brisk autumn rain the last rights, cleansing the earth for winter,
choked frozen stems break away, leaves fall from cold branches
half dead they blanket wet streets, the cycle of life repeats
I fell asleep nestled in down as part of a white world..
and woke up to water dripping from branches where snow had been.
it seems nature is as fickle as I, white is now grey
leading through to the shrine, stories stacked like dominoes
Spring sunlight seeps in, it's shadows repeat the pattern
a silent chant of color, an orange gateway to god.
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