Shisendo (Joozan-ji)
temple of the poetry immortals
forest is moss
a little world
trees are stone
in the whispering shade
some few face away
some lean in
they are all wisp bearded
the immortals
each looks a little to the side
each on the occasion of a poem
funny hats
ghost locks
a scroll could be a sword
all eyes to the shade of the tree
and the tree itself
all ants on pilgrimage
a path leads through the poem
someone comes to sweep
a dragonfly’s bright turning
other wings lit
the sombre bee
voices unseen
shrub rounded like a verse to drink
eyes to seasons passed
great nature
shoji
tatami
our world is straw
from it, see
to shock the deer away
soozu – shishi odoshi
this is punctuation
heartbeat of the day
a leaf falls to be gathered away
and one into my lap
it’s like a garden in your head, the poem
patience in the shadows of leaves
though breezeless, never still
everything built is
flimsy as a word
garden is the place inside a poem
the inside’s out
the great is least
one comes with a practiced calm
to be further
to wear the day out
I make a record of
how time stood
how I stopped for it
you see – this is the way I am here
this is a kind of home
No comments:
Post a Comment