A room with so much,
Too much to just move an inch
Can you give me space?
Temasek, December 30, 2018 – 20:12
Category Archives: Poetic
Tanka – link to read
I’ve been learning how to write haiku, and now tanka. The link below to learn in simple way.
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The Japanese tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song,” and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form.
One of the oldest Japanese forms, tanka originated in the seventh century, and quickly became the preferred verse form not only in the Japanese Imperial Court, where nobles competed in tanka contests, but for women and men engaged in courtship. Tanka’s economy and suitability for emotional expression made it ideal for intimate communication; lovers would often, after an evening spent together (often clandestinely), dash off a tanka to give to the other the next morning as a gift of gratitude.
In many ways, the tanka resembles the sonnet, certainly in terms of treatment of subject. Like the sonnet, the tanka employs a turn, known as a pivotal image, which marks the transition from the examination of an image to the examination of the personal response. This turn is located within the third line, connecting the kami-no-ku, or upper poem, with the shimo-no-ku, or lower poem.
Many of the great tanka poets were women, among them Lady Akazone Emon, Yosano Akiko, and Lady Murasaki Shikibu, who wrote The Tale of Genji, a foundational Japanese prose text that includes over 400 tanka. English-language writers have not taken to the tanka form in the same way they have the haiku, but there are several notable exceptions, including Amy Lowell, Kenneth Rexroth, Sam Hamill, Cid Corman, and Carolyn Kizer.
There are many excellent anthologies of Japanese verse, most of which feature lengthy selections of tanka. Rexroth’s translations, which include One Hundred Poems from the Japanese and One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese, are considered classics, and The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi & Izumi Shikibu, translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani, continues this tradition.
Off – haiku
Can Light wish for one
Moment when Time’s going off?
Tired of being —
Singapore – Dec. 18, 2018 – 8:45pm
Memory – free verse
What is it in memory?
Data
Process them
To build a better program
With a more beneficial function
For brighter output.
Singapore – December 16, 2018 – 4:03pm
Caged Bird – free verse
My father had a black starling.
It loved eating kepok* banana – no, had no choice.
It sang – no, cried
It danced – no, nervous
It entertained our guests – no, tried to escape
It slept peacefully – no, dreamed nightmares days and nights
It did happily – no, a prisoner.
The cage was wires and wood.
We hoped it could talk.
Our family moved
To a much smaller home.
Our starling got neglected
How much I can feel the guilty is like a teary moment to a bloody heart!
The black starling got a home
Bigger:
My mother’s relative.
It loved eating kepok* banana – no, had no choice.
It sang – no, cried
It danced – no, nervous
It entertained our guests – no, tried to escape
It slept peacefully – no, dreamed nightmares days and nights
It did happily – no, a prisoner.
The cage was wires and wood, half we gave to it.
We hoped it could talk.
If you are dead, dear Black Starling,
Be in a peaceful moment.
Fly with your beautiful wings, black and shiny!
Feed your life with all the fresh memories.
Forget all the cages and bars.
Be the air
Be the vapour
Be the atmosphere
Be our silent guidance to the freedom out of this cage.
Thank you for your will to be our prisoner
Thank you for your sincerity to be our exhibition
Thank you for your sacrifice to feed our ego
Thank you for your life to complete our purity.
See you across the bridge.
You’ve met him, right?
Tell him you forgive us.
Yours truly,
Me
Shanghai – Dec. 15, 2018 – 12:05 noon is here
Drunken Master – free verse
A jug of water
Flows down in to many mugs.
Drink, Master. Drink!
Shanghai, Dec. 14, 2018 – 23:49
Picture borrowed from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080179/
The Theophany of Perfection – Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
The Theophany of Perfection
Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
Listen, O dearly beloved!
I am the reality of the world, the centre of the circumference,
I am the parts and the whole.
I am the will established between Heaven and Earth,
I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of My Perception.
If then you perceive Me, you perceive yourself.
But you cannot perceive Me through yourself.
It is through My Eyes that you see Me and see yourself,
Through your eyes you cannot see Me.
Dearly beloved!
I have called you so often and you have not heard Me.
I have shown Myself to you so often and you have not seen Me.
I have made Myself fragrance so often, and you have not smelled Me,
Savorous food, and you have not tasted Me.
Why can you not reach Me through the object you touch
Or breathe Me through sweet perfumes?
Why do you not see Me? Why do you not hear Me?
Why? Why? Why?
For you My delights surpass all other delights,
And the pleasure I procure you surpasses all other pleasures.
For you I am preferable to all other good things,
I am Beauty, I am Grace.
Love Me, love Me alone.
Love yourself in Me, in Me alone.
Attach yourself to Me,
No one is more inward than I.
Others love you for their own sakes,
I love you for yourself.
And you, you flee from Me.
Dearly beloved!
You cannot treat Me fairly,
For if you approach Me,
It is because I have approached you.
I am nearer to you than yourself,
Than your soul, than your breath.
Who among creatures
Would treat you as I do?
I am jealous of you, over you,
I want you to belong to no other,
Not even to yourself.
Be Mine, be for Me as you are in Me,
Though you are not even aware of it.
Dearly beloved!
Let us go toward Union.
And if we find the road
That leads to separation,
We will destroy separation.
Let us go hand in hand.
Let us enter the presence of Truth.
Let It be our judge
And imprint Its seal upon our union
For ever.
Temasek – December 5, 2018 – 20:53 (when I’m sick)
Picture is borrowed from mezquita.html
A Reservoir – haiku
In the dark black night
She is staring at afar
At the reservoir.
Temasek – Dec. 3, 2018 – 11:13pm
Seasons
Two or four are they?
Cycling to count the moments–
That never come back.
Temasek – September 10, 2018 – 5:08
Orchid in a spot – haiku
Orchid in a spot
Is reflected on mirror
On both walls, so clear.
Temasek – July 29, 2018
Bold Petals – haiku
Bold petals of red
Roses among thorns dry out
By the Wind of North.
GH Jakarta — May 8, 2018
Faces – haiku
Facets and faces
On diamonds and humans are
Overt covert beauty —
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Can you see the real things behind the things? You might be able or not but the thing is there you know it or not. Existence is not about the humans’ ability to see through, existence is about that it is there and that’s it. You’ve gotta to reach the fact that you believe what’s true is true, what exists exists without judging what’s true and what exists. My homework for myself.
Temasek – April 28, 2018 – 14:04
Train – haiku
Connected and long,
It moves on a rail towards
A destined station.
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Like a train, a training is an un-broken chain of programs a trainee should undergo. Trainee shall follow instructions in the assigned modules as guided by the trainer. Alas! Long. Connected. Tested. Goal.
Yet we shall get certified by a licensed party eh?
Singapore – April 27, 2018 – 18:31
Enchanting – haiku
Intense beams of light
Flash in front a locked gate.
Those are enchanting.
Singapore – April 26, 2018 – 00:27
Gratitude – haiku
Wet arrows pour down
To earth, sow blessings and love.
Green and gold grows up.
Ipoh – April 23, 2018 – 22:55
On The Way – haiku
He is on the way,
Plucking flowers and berries.
Should they join him now?
Jakarta – April 21, 2018 – 00:14
Vacation – haiku
Sunshine’s in whole year.
A backpack and travel check–
Still in a vacation.
GH Jakarta, 20 April 2018 – 06:33am
Chocho – haiku
He’s a yellow cat,
With a hurt back and couldn’t walk.
Much love is showered.
Chocho is one of two kittens that survive of 4 of Mother Prengil. He got an unknown accident that made him not able to walk and just drag his body. I wish I’d be with him to give him medication.
I’m so sorry, Chocho. 💝
GH Jakarta, April 19 2018 – 23:10
Hotel – haiku
Bed and bath and meal,
Hospitality and warmth
Grow well with homesick.
GH Jakarta – April 18, 2018 – 21:00
Picture borrowed from http://boss.co.id/project/grand-hyatt/
Nothing But A Rock – haiku
What’s called history:
Grey yet great. But your eyes caught
Nothing but a rock.
GH Manila – March 19, 2018 – 23:03
