The moon in all her immaculate purity hung in the sky, laughing at this world of dust. She congratulated me for my carefully considered maneuvers and invited me to share in her eternal solitude.
“The roads gleam towards you The oceans beckon towards you A beauty beyond the lapping waves…”
Artemis: title of song is Yumeji’s theme by
Shigeru Umebayashi from the movie In the Mood for Love, (original title: Faa yeung nin wa) by Writer | Director: Kar-Wai Wong)
There have been a lot of challenges and obstacles along along the way–three hospitalizations in the last 12 months, fewer students (almost none now) because of the medical stuff, and much more that I’ll spare you, but here I am, back to blogging, and, here, amazingly, a little collection of my early poems.
I’ve posted a lot of poems in my blog over the last few years, but those have been newer ones under the name “Tanka Diary.” This collection is made up of my first tanka poems, older ones that go back to when I was living in Japan, most of which have not been shared here.
Here are two from this volume:
The sky seems ablaze on this starry autumn night. Come fast as you can, we’ll join in a firey kiss, one more light in the cosmos.
My empty garden and this vacant letterbox, like my patient heart: all waiting to be filled, yearning for one more summer.
This collection contains an introduction by poet James Kirkup and a glossary of Japanese words that I used in some of the poems.
With some luck and anything like a reasonably good response, I’m hoping for two more volumes this year–newer poems written during my time her on Tumblr.
The book is available on Amazon and soon, I think, on Kindle as well. For the convenience of those wishing to order, I will soon add a link to the Amazon page.
This might also be a good time to thank everyone here who has supported my poetry over the last seven years. I probably wouldn’t have dared to publish this if it weren’t for your encouragement and presence in my life.
1973 - BB King Called This His Best Performance (via: David Hoffman | YouTube)
Artemis: How Blue Can You Get
live on Thanksgiving Day in New York’s Sing Sing Prison.
From the documentary Sing Sing Prison Concert: BB King, Joan Baez, Directed by David Hoffman Here
KIng & Joan Baez and other great artists came to New York’s Maximum Security Prison, SING SING, and gave one of the Best Shows of their lives. BB called it one of his greatest performances.
The whole time I was hoping my silence would fit yours and exclamation marks would gently float across time and space so that boundaries would be crossed; the whole time I was praying you would read my eyes and understand what I was never able to understand. See, we were never about butterflies. We’ve always been about burning stars. All about us is unearthly and radiant.
—
Anna Akhmatova
Sting & Chris Botti - La Belle Dame Sans Regrets (via:
Max Narciso | youtube)
Artemis: pretty sure music was added to an Audrey Tautou Chanel No 5 short film/advertisement directed By Jean Pierre Jeunet.
Artemis: I generally don’t post this kind of thing but… While surfing and buying for our families…there are a lot of homeless kids out there. You can check link for general donations as well and I assume links and resources for other cities. Just a thought. .
