Morning Moods

I am a big fan of many things Japanese.  And, Haiku - a poetic form of 5-7-5 syllables which 'captures' moments-moods, embedded within seasons, nature, and space, with a briefest rhythm of words, tops my charts as quintessentially the best in Japanese Zen expression. Of course, the language itself lends naturally to the emergence of this poetic form with their enormous mood-vocabulary expressed in briefest inter-connected mono-syllables.

For my month in Kyoto, I promised myself an attempt to do at least one haiku every day. Most days, I sit immediately after my morning coffee, looking out into forests that roll steeply down hill and try to think of words that express the moment. Morning Moods compiles this attempt so far, to express a mood-moments without complying to a strict rigor on the syllable rhythm - challenging to do in English. I have used Japanese seasons words, as a guide, where I could.

Summer departs,
mists descends down hills, forests,
wrapping my new day.                                              

momiji-gari (display of autumn leaves)
fiery colors ablaze within-
my autumn age.

Awaiting Koyo (display of autumn leaves)
no sign of Kitsusuki (woodpecker - autumn signature)
restless in Kyoto                                                                                      --3/10/17

Transparent cool days
Hints of fire in green forests
will I miss Koyo?

Golden harvest moon,
shibori clouds on indigo-
Kumano Jinja Mae ( a temple)                                                              --4/10/17


Hatsu Akashi (first autumn storm)
in reverence, trees bow low
rain drenched earth.                                                                                --6/10/17

Rain gusts billow mists
swathe tall cedars in pashminas
silence is now fragrant.                                                                                   --7/10/17

Watery sunshine
mists rise amongst Hinoki (Japanese cedar)
Earth lights incense to day                                                                             --8/10/17

Eye-doors shut; I dream,
play, sing, and dance - all within;
bird songs from afar.                                                                            

Warm, and sunny days
Koyo in Kyoto distant,
clear heart, I still smile                                                                         --9/10/17

Doors open, butterfly
flew inside, and cicada
chirped under my bed.

Aki-no-ame (autumn rain)
scraps of sky litter the ground,
suns ablaze all around.                                                                       --10/10/17

In bed, wondering
to read, to paint or to sing
days pass, seasons change.

A fall fly flies in,
finds food, warmth, my nose to perch,
who will move first?                                                                         --11/10/17

Still a week away,
Kurama himatsuri (fire festival in Kurama),
Forest flames kindle.

night rains, morning mists,
lonely birdcall from forests
I sit still, aware                                                                                 --12/10/17

Aki-no-sora (intense blue autumn sky)
washed over by red-gold dusk,
Geese fly south over Kamo(river)      

Incessant misty rains,
dark clouds blanket the forests
- a piercing shika scream (mating call of small deer in autumn)     --13/10/17

watercolor dawn,
softly washed land and sky
birds chorus in song.

waning harvest moon
dark Sumi nights, I sit, (Sumi = charcoal ink)
within my Enso.

Two inter-twined lives
irrelevant chains in space-time
part of cosmic mandala.                                                               --14/10/17

Dark green forest-hills
loom over golden paddy
feast days for sparrows.                                                               --15/10/17

aki-no-koe shinryoo( autumn rains, new cool)
forests wrapped in wreathes of mists
pine and cedar's fragrance.                                                          --16/10/17

Kyoto Days

I sit in silence
gleaning wisdom in small, slow measures
from subdued voices, that hum within,
of trees, sky, wind, rain and fire,
of distant ancestors unknown, unheard, but still whispering,
of poets and myths inherited or eavesdropped,
of humanity's songs, laughter, struggles,
for life, justice, peace - valued for itself and in respect of all dreams.

I sink even deeper beneath the layers of voices -
that move in currents of light and goodness-
to the still and rich ocean floor of the nothing,
unknown and unexplored,
knowing that I have finally arrived at my anchor
to that depth where all roots merge to
feed the trunk of our cosmic existence.