Of Petals and Poets

Kyoto Spring

 

The waka poets

weighted the cherry petals

with sad sentiment …

Nonetheless they sail the air

as if unburdened with care.

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

 

Nothing

 

i

A segmented tube

of nothingness—and yet how

beautiful, bamboo.

 

ii

Very Japanese,

bamboo—except your wrapping

has nothing in it!

 

iii

Exclaiming katsu!

the monk found nothing hiding

inside the bamboo.

 

Andrew Lansdown

Wasp and Water

 

The wasp that blitzed

the panting bird

 

about to bathe

in the bamboo-

 

shaded birdbath

has settled in

 

the bird’s place on

the light-mottled

 

stone lip to sip

sip the brimming

 

sodden-leaf-laced

lukewarm water

 

in the monstrous

mid-summer heat.

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

Memories of War

In Shinto mythology, amatsukami are the gods of heaven

and kunitsukami are the gods of earth.

 

It happened like this:

When the amatsukami

let fly their long shafts,

the kunitsukami dodged

and let them lodge in

the hill heights of Sagano,

then turned them into

these living poles of bamboo.

And the stems retain

the sense of their beginnings,

so that every wind

that sweeps the country flusters

their green feathers and

sets them rattling like war lances

when warriors whoop their dances!

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

 

The Small Souls

 

Are bodhisattvas real?

And will this one called “Jizo”,

this one whose statuettes

by roadsides and at temples

mourning mothers dress up

in blood-red bonnets and bibs—

will he, “The Protector

of Aborted Souls”, give aid

to the dear mizuko,

“water children”, foetuses

slipped or snatched from this life

before their first squall or suck?

Will he help the spirits

of the unborn dead construct

stone hills to climb from hell?

Oh, sweet Jesus, if they could

but know, these mothers, that

their lost children did not leave

the womb’s liminal state for

the afterlife’s limbo state—

if only they could know

their sons, daughters, are being

dandled now on your knee—

if they could just hear you call,

“Let the small souls come to me”!

Andrew Lansdown