Blue heron takes flight
giant wings stir wispy clouds
April emerges.
December garden
faceless Buddha loudly laughs
wriggling toes in snow.
Bang the drum loudly
kasha awaits the silence
a winter tempest
snow
WINTER FALLS ON JAPAN
Upon the peak of Mt. Fuji
the first snow is shrouded
by the mother clouds.
In the shadows, rice shoots
stare up in reverence.
ALLEGORY
The sooty snow
blankets the fields
blowing like
a still ocean
off the precipice
of the horizon.
The clouds
of ash tinged cotton
hug the earth
a blanket
under which all life
finds refuge
from the ghosts
of winter.
To the wanderer
which the cave mouth
which the cave?
SEASONINGS (HAIKU)
above only sky
beneath only dark gray clouds
the sun is content
a mountain of clouds
rises from white tufted bed
the earth is watered
in winter’s icy chill
ripples from autumn’s pebble
await the spring sun
the leafless ginkgo
taunts the first snow of winter
with the dream of spring
A SOUTHERN WINTER (HAIKU)
In the dark of night
clouds gavotte across the sky
we awake to rain
There is no snow here –
we dream of Fujiyama
imagine winter.
A thousand cranes rise
take wing over the city
smiling at the sun.
IN ABSENCE
The dawn failed to appear this morning.
There was a slight lightening of the sky,
more a change of grayscale shade
that a shift in time-honored by the sun.
The crows seemed to notice, why else
would they stay silent, so unlike
most days when the first rays of sun
were the call to take up the cacophony chorus.
Even the squirrels noticed, and hid in the trees,
knowing this was not a normal day,
but soon emerged when the siren’s call
of nuts outweighed their fear.
We trod on into the park, picking
our way through the piled snow,
cursing winters cruel approach, our path
lit by our fading memory of summer.
BURDEN OF WINTER
On this one a taste
clinging gingerly,
on this one clumps,
here a variegated blanket.
Each tree bears
the burden of winter
in its own way.
