K. Ramesh and Kala Ramesh: Wednesday Haiku, #182

Van Gogh

nothing to lose
nothing to gain...
starlit sky

K. Ramesh

Photo by Bob Jenkins

a beggar
lifts her palms to passersby 
hardened earth

Kala Ramesh

 Kashira of Tanabata Festival by Oishi Akichika

my stars--
a gang of old men
in the Milky Way

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

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Rumi & Shinkichi Takahashi: Two Poems for a Friday Afternoon

Photo by Trabajo Propio

I have lived on the lip 
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside!

     Rumi  (quatrain #1249)
     translated by Coleman Barks  

Photo by Mathias Karlsson

 

Potato

Inside of one potato
there are mountains and rivers.

   Shinkichi Takahashi
   translated by Harold P. Wright 

Sometimes, on the surface, it would seem that two poems share little in common. But that's on the surface. What might be their relationship? Is it purely the mind that dovetails their separate meanings, or is it something else?

Certainly, they are both mystical.

These two poems, by two poetic masters, somehow ended up on my radar within the same week. They seem, in a mere 4 and 2 lines respectively, to contain universes. 

Let's leave it at that, eh?

This journey is certainly scenic.

~~~~~~~

 

The Moon and the Milky Way by Yoshitoshi

 

looking pretty
in a hole in the paper door...
Milky Way

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Who Wrote Holden Caulfield: Issa's Sunday Service, #68

Artwork by Carmela Alvarado

I received a number of suggestions for the Sunday Service this week and so free issues of Lilliput Review are winging their way out to folks (what's up with that?) .  I thought I'd feature one of those suggestions to encourage people to keep 'em coming.

Here's is Green Day's homage to J. D. Salinger's legendary anti-hero, Holden Caulfield.  Does it capture the breadth and depth of the decrying of all things phony?  Nope, not even close.  Is it a rock song, does it capture a certain something about one of literature's greatest j.d.'s?  Yup, hence slack duly given.

Actually, good ol' Jerome has been on our collective minds of late with this intimate bit of memorabilia going up for auction recently.

Not up your street, you say?  Well, along with the above song, here is a nicely energized live version to take away all the nasty thoughts.  Sort of .

Enjoy.






                           

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Today's feature poem comes from Lilliput Review, #101, January 1999. Touched as it is by memory, it's an appropriate end of summer poem. Enjoy.

at seventeen

I remember how dark the sky was
over my little home town
how warm the hood of Dad's '68 Fairlane
against my narrow back as I lay there
gazing up at the Milky Way all those
bright crowded stars strewn up there
so carelessly so abundantly for me
like a million easy choices
every one so easy to see

Michael R. Battram

Oh, here's another from 101 for luck, capturing the feel of the cool breeze that has broken the heat wave here and hints at things to come:





still life with poet

to touch a leaf, its
veins, to catch
a cloud, an edge of land
to pin it down
forever, a web, a wing
a rush of cold

Lonnie Hull Dupont

How lovely it is
To look through the broken window
And discover the Milky Way

Issa

best,
Don

PS  Get 2 free issues     Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive