notes from kyoto

in memory of jivan west

a sea stack

stands there alone

to be this vastness

that is no longer seen

sprawling waves

and night stars

illumine your face

'branching streams flow in the dark' shunruyu suzuki

it's summer time

murmur of branches

music for the roots

reaching far

in passingness

the real

unreal

shimmers on a mirror

from breath

suspended

marusankaku shinkaku

emptiness and the

ten thousand islands

and words given to

name the nameless

speechless

universe

in memoriam

maria englehart

morning

sitting next to no one

listening together

to the burble of the rain

eternal pilgrims

roads themselves are

true wayfarers

weary of loneliness

invent and give us a name

moon too may be their invention

pilgrim they call us

pilgrims

to what purpose your pilgrimage

they ask

as if we knew

as if they knew

but the moon

keeping attendance

of the long absentee

the meeting room

hossu / rock garden tokofuji temple

in peace

they have come here to age

the rocks

some point to the sky unbound

some leap beyond pointing

each day a bed of gravel

retells their passage

through a kingdom

called the sea

for now

the ephemeral is

here with us to stay

with fewer words than less

the unseen in the seen

time

a crow perched from a branch

beaming in its mantel of rain

in the description of the temple grounds

lost in the maze of names and dates

what has come to pass since long

is a poem not many see

yet it is there

black in white

on closer look

the garden still retains

traces of its ancient shadows

when faces all drop away

appears the face that is true

what is true

the face of who

not a face to be worn

face to be changed

face no one can see

no one can face

that washes you

your elders unborn

fading peal of bells

in a sea of low clouds

disappearing

flight of a pair of crows

shrouded in mist

mountain passes

beckon you down

dream paths

at the end of a path

strewn with stone

a mirror where clouds

and trees come to bathe

songbirds will not forgot us

a life long journey to see

it's to longing you belong

longing for what

your dwelling

peace of not seeking

seeking or wanting peace

not given not

taken away

clarity

the gate guardian doesn't

see you pass through

rainclouds hover above the garden

the crow's sudden voice

shatters the heart

silence

fellow travelers

whereto now from

this mountain top

lost in morning mists

clear

narrow

our path

the nowhere path we

tread together alone

matsudo basho / translated by makoto uedo

akebono ya

shirauo shiroki

koto issun

a whitefish with an inch

òf whiteness

in the morning twilight

______________________________________________

white you saw it

now the fish is black

this eye that passes

through an inch of daylight

stillness comes with its light

you may come with your pittance

in darkness we meet

hōjōki / kamo no chōmei

the moon of my life is waning

setting gently behind the hills

__________________________________

à olivier devèze

water lilies' sleep

is spilling over us

friend

ripples gone on travel

you reply

ami

le sommeil des nénuphars

nous comble

ondes parties en voyage

tu réponds

forward and backward

movement of cracks

in its passage

time

at times

the shape of our lives

then our karma too

if all else is intertwined

omikuji

fortune may well run out

unbidden

many the blessings

of the wind

time to return now

to the it's nowhere

and everywhere

abode

ahead

a broken path

where a poem

that dreams in white

beckons you