Andrew Lansdown: Five Poems

On the Composition of Haiku

i

The haiku master—

labouring past the moment

to seize the moment.

ii

Counting syllables—

the ancient haijin did not

count it beneath them.

iii

Attempting to touch

in seventeen syllables

a small thing as such.

Andrew Lansdown

Ukiyo-e Kawaii

Plainly sparrows will

fluff up for warmth while perching at

nightfall or snowfall—

but who can explain the plumpness

of the ones winging

among stylised bamboos in those

woodblocks by the ancient masters?

Andrew Lansdown

Miscellaneous Thoughts on Poetry

1

On Poetry and Photography

Poems, like photographs,

can check the covetousness

that attractive things

engender in human hearts—

the craving to catch and keep.

2

On Imagist Poetry

Precise imagery,

plausible and original,

is strangely moving:

who can define or dare dismiss

the emotion of exquisite?

3

On Japanese Poetry

Hard to tell, at times,

if the loneliness…