Culture, San Francisco, Poetry, Music, Reviews, Short Stories and Life
Japan
Fire Flowers and Shrine Festivals and Wishes upon a Bamboo Tree
I never got to see a hanami fireworks festival in Japan. The first year it was so hot and I wasn’t used to the heat, so standing outside in the humid hot night air getting bitten by mosquitos didn’t thrill me. Summer arrives in packs of fireworks in the shops, origami crafts for Tanabata in […]
MoreGrandpa and the Bell. Haiku
Market shrine: man claps. “Protect these children!” he cries: Wooden prayers. Wind blows.
MoreKyoto: Three Haiku and Meanderings
Summer in Kyoto, the heat sinks over the day early. Not the bleaching heat of the California desert, nor the hot and bothered blustery seaside heat of the Oregon coast, but a heavy, swamping, wet, earthy, fragrant verdant heat. Mosquitos everywhere, the Japanese call them Ka (sounds like the word car) , the short sharp […]
MoreYume
夢の庵 I The still drops from the water cake Understated sweetness Cool Inviolate Heart beat slows To a restrained take on the universe And all within it Herded Harnessed Bit and bridled Steered Separated: Milk from curdle A slow process This is no whirl No dervish. This is time slowed down to a pin prick […]
MoreMissed Connections
I don’t know whether any of you read the missed connections on Craigslist? It is mostly a horrorshow of human sexual desperation, but there is the occasional gem. In the depths of the pandemic, protests raging, everyone scared, deaths rising, I found a woman, just wanting to wish everyone well, and ask them to stay […]
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