These Astonishments

Cosy Corner, southern coast, Western Australia

 

Surmounting the dune

I observe in the same instant

in the cove’s confine

a man kitted in tartan kilt

squalling a bagpipe,

a dinghy glinting while dinting

the wind-whitened chop,

surfers waiving a minor wave,

women in beachwear

reconfirming beauty’s contours,

young boys jigging kites

and fishermen twitching lines tied

to the tossing blue …

Then as I sit down to jot down

these astonishments

a dripping dog trots from the sea

with a piece of driftwood for me!

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

Dog

 

i

He is not ashamed

even though I stop and stare—

youth kicking a dog.

 

ii

Too terror-stricken

even to run away—the dog

the youth is beating.

 

iii

A caricature—

the young man kicking his dog

has a hangdog look.

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

Bamboo Dragonflies from the Bamboo Forest

 

They journeyed from Japan,

the bamboo dragonflies

buoyant by my bookcase.

 

Members of a squadron

of small fixed-wing flyers,

they zeroed in on me

 

as I walked with my wife

through an ancient forest

of tall timber bamboos.

 

And I quickly yielded

to the craftsman for them

my every yearn and yen.

 

Now they hover weightless

above papers and books,

upheld by just the tips

 

of their noses touching

the raised sticks of their stands,

the weight of their bodies

 

and long tails magically

offset by the weight of

their forward-thrusting wings.

 

They float dreamily there

in the still air above

the tarmac of my desk,

 

tempting me to puff them

into storm even as

I marvel at their poise,

 

reminding me always

of the balance and grace

they own but I must chase.

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

On the Fear of Foxes in Ancient Japan

 

1

Trickster

 

Not of the rascal

but of the ruinous sort,

Japan’s trickster fox—

shapeshifter and spellbinder,

weird possessor of men’s wills.

 

2

Pertaining to Fox-Possession

 

The solution

was almost as awful as

the condition:

To exorcise a fox, beat

the victim, or apply heat.

 

3

The Fanciful Fact

 

It seems fanciful

but in fact the Shogun did

write to the Fox God

demanding the punishment

of a fox for bewitchment!

 

4

Giveaway

 

The old tales disclose

why foxes disguised as women

are wary of weirs:

they shed shadows on the waters

unlike those of human daughters.

 

Andrew Lansdown