WAKIZASHI

Tags

poem, poetry

WAKIZASHI

wakizashi drawn
I await an
intimate enemy
my shadow
warrior

he bears the
same wounds
and scars as me

our styles, our skills,
our deep
lethal hatred

matching
perfectly

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MINDFUL

Tags

poem, poetry

MINDFUL

Let me
be

mindful
let me

be folded into
myself

today
you wanted machine
you wanted
automation

did not
covet words
longed for

desire
roaring like
a beast
of prey

like the
sea

like the
pack alpha

wished devoutly
to be
devoured

swept away

not to burn slowly, steadily
like a perfumed candle.

TIGER TANKA

Tags

poem, poetry

TIGER TANKA

My poem
is tanka
it is haiku

it is
Kobiyashi
Maru

no recourse left
but seppuku

but when it comes
to you
butting your
head in my
poetic business

then
here I come
dropping out
the Sun
tuned kamikaze
(nothing going
to stop me
delivering
this
bomb)

OVERHEAD

Tags

poem, poetry, science fiction, Universe

I dreamt
I was a
flying
saucer

flying high above
the mountains

in the valleys
so much bloodshed
incessant war, no
true victors

but in the mountains
men whose minds
clear as crystal
meditate
upon the spirit

dream of knowing light
and darkness, the rules
to the great
chess game of
the Universe

and me still saucering
overhead.

EVENTUALLY

Tags

poem, poetry

EVENTUALLY

eventually
ode after ode
elegy after
elegy

distilled down
to epigraph, to a haiku

poetry gets down to
embraces
first principles

THE ALIEN POEMS: TANKA

Tags

poem, poetry, Universe

THE ALIEN POEMS

TANKA

alien haiku
start out a billion lines
cut down to just three

so every haiku they write
requires all of history

SAYO NARABA

SAYO NARABA

let me leave
to find a
new world

those who
wish to follow
can follow

forget, unlearn,
learn again

still in my memory
echoes of what was before
in the Sengoku Jidai
the war of Empire

how much consciousness
atomized at
Nagasaki

and would the Universe
care to recycle

let my
atoms blow
and if the consciousness go
or follow

it is no
great tragedy, kabuki
dance or
mime-show

I told you I loved you
and meant it, that
is enough for
one life

wrong to ask, to
expect more

AT THE DOOR

I persuaded the I Ching
that I would proceed
correctly

not like the serpent
invited to the tea ceremony

who fell in love
with all the sheathed swords
left for safety’s sake
at the door.

COLD DAY

such a
bright warm day
for seppuku

Oh, no, should be cold,
clear, Winter sun glinting
off metal

So
so a perfectly crisp
cold day for seppuku

if the snow begins
to fall I will

try to catch a flake
upon my tongue
before I am gone

THE WORSE LIFE GETS

the worse life gets
the more beautiful
the poetry
(what kind
of wicked parasite
is this to
turn my
pain into
your pleasure?)

be that as it may,
would that lust were my only sin
would that it had all
of my dedication, total
Zen-monk focus

then we could talk about your kimono
is subtle, surreptitious
removal my
elephant in the room

but no street preacher
when you need one so
the smooth feel of
skin must
be left to, must
totally become
product of my imagination

street preacher, street walker,
one of you must absolve me,
convert me
endorse me

leave me with lust, best in
the form, the shape
of special desire

kimono
on the floor

there is
space
to
fill, that
can be filled

places to kiss