Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Rehn Kovacic & Bart Solarcyzk: Wednesday Haiku, #152

Photo by 顔なし


Incense smoke mingles
      with discarded thoughts—
          temple gong.

Rehn Kovacic

 



 Photo by BMP



November clouds
smiling dog
bites the wind

Bart Solarczyk




Photo by M.Nishimura




taking turns
with the prayer gong...
mountain cuckoo
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue




best,
Don
 Send one haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

  Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 185 songs


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Song to the Siren: Issa's Sunday Service, #185


This week's selection is Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren, with its feet firmly embedded in the stuff of mythology (& Homer's Odyssey) and its head in the lyrical clouds. There is no groovshark app today, just the youtube video.

So it goes with technology. Enjoy - lyrics follow.
 

The Siren Song - Tim Buckley
Long afloat on shipless oceans
I did all my best to smile
'Til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang
Sail to me, sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am, here I am
Waiting to hold you
Did I dream you dreamed about me ?
Were you hare when I was fox ?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
Broken lovelorn on your rocks
For you sing
'Touch me not, touch me not
Come back tomorrow
Oh my heart, oh my heart
Shies from the sorrow'
I am puzzled as the oyster
I am troubled as the tide
Should I stand amid your breakers ?
Or should I lie with death my bride ?
Hear me sing
'Swim to me, swim to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am, here I am
Waiting to hold you.
------------------




are you the harvest moon's
representative?
white rabbit
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue



best,
Don
 Send one haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

  Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 185 songs

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Chen-ou Liu & Tony DeCarolis: Wednesday Haiku, #151




a black bird
between snow-capped peaks
his words linger
                                    - (for Wallace Stevens) 

                Chen-ou Liu



Photo by xpistwv



Bold hummingbirds buzz
above the ever wary fawn.
If only she flew.   
Tony DeCarolis



Artwork by Ivan Bilibin


 
don't teach your tricks
to the fawn!
cawing crows
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue



best,
Don
 Send one haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

  Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 184 songs

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Robert Bly: Growing Wings (a ghazal)



GROWING WINGS - Robert Bly

It's all right if Cezanne goes on painting the same picture.
It's all right if juice tastes bitter in our mouths.
It's all right if the old man drags one useless foot.

The apple on the Tree of Paradise hangs there for months.
We wait for years and years on the lip of the falls;
The blue-gray mountain keeps rising behind the black trees.

It's all right if I feel this same pain until I die.
A pain that we have earned gives more nourishment
Than the joy we won at the lottery last night.

It's all right if the partridge's nest fills with snow.
Why should the hunter complain if his bag is empty
At dusk? It only means the bird will live another night.

It's all right if we turn in all our keys tonight.
It's all right if we give up our longing for the spiral.
It's all right if the boat I love never reaches shore.

If we're already so close to death, why should we complain?
Robert, you've climbed so many trees to reach the nests.
It's all right if you grow your wings on the way down.

from My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy

Robert Bly has been working for quite some time in the ghazal form in English and this particular volume, My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy, is groundbreaking, transformative, and a pure thrill to read. 

The history of the form in English is not a long one. An informative article, though with no mention of Bly, may be found here (another interesting series of articles may be found at the aha poetry site). I believe Bly is helping to literally transform the ghazal itself in its English incarnation. 

For those who are unaware, ghazal in English is pronounced "guzzle" (with the g enunciated from the back of the throat) or haazal, if my ear is getting it right. You can hear it pronounced here

As with non-Japanese haiku, ghazal can become something different in another language (for example, Bly's renditions, which have something of the spirit and some of the conventions but also somthing all their own), related, perhaps running a parallel course. In any case, this interesting form certainly enriches English language poetry and can expand the palette for English language poets. 

For those who find the idea of these 'bastard ghazals', as Wikipedia describes them, unappealing, work that sticks a bit closer to the form may be found in the 1st English language anthology of ghazals, Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English, edited by Aga Shahid Ali is an alternative (though, ironically, Wikipedia noted that only 1 in 10 of the poems in the anthology "observe the constraints of the form.")

All that being said, least I stray too far, My Sentence is a Thousand Years of Joy is a Bly volume to cherish. It is well worth space on any poetry reader's shelf.

----------------------


Artwork by Enrico Manzanti from Pinnochio



when will it become
a cricket's nest?
my white hair
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue



best,
Don
 Send one haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

  Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 184 songs

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Michael Newell & Anitha Varma: Wednesday Haiku, #150





another day another mistake
another path to wander

Michael L. Newell


 

 Photo by Jesse Eastland



early darkness..
the world vanishes
layer by layer

Anitha Varma






deep-mountain deer
also stray off the path
to love
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue



best,
Don
 Send one haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

  Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 184 songs