Kyoto Blossoms

for Susan

 

i

Lovely, the flowering

cherries … and yet, near the end

somehow lonely, too.

 

ii

The falling petals—

almost they make us forget

we are immortals.

 

iii

No weeping, dear heart—

they are just petals and they

were lost from the start.

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

Frog Cacophonies

 

I Marsh

 

i

Chirpy as crickets—

fellowship of little frogs

by the paperbarks.

 

ii

Only the first week

of winter—what sort of ruckus

in a month, marsh frogs?

 

 

II Dam

 

i

The dam at dusk—

two or three motorbike frogs

start revving up.

 

ii

Having a track meet

by the farm dam at midnight—

the motorbike frogs.

 

 

III

       Puddle

 

i

On the second beat

a second frog also croaks—

chill winter evening.

 

ii

Antiphonal—

two frogs calling either end

of the puddle.

 

 

IV

       Well

 

i

In a shallow pool

a deep-well stone-dropping sound

from a hidden frog.

 

ii

No way out, but still

such a high and happy yell—

the frog in the well.

 

 

V

       Swamp

 

i

One million frogs

or one megafrog? Can’t tell

from the racket!

 

ii

Oh stop, you jolly

little frogs—it’s unseemly

to be so happy!

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

 

Jizo Stones by the Three-Storeyed Pagoda

Kōfuku-ji, Nara

 

Treading softly the deer

graze among the Jizo stones

 

where mothers shed a tear

for their aborted children

 

and try to stem their fear

that the children suffer there

 

the hell they suffered here.

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

The Unheard Stags

 

Maybe it’s because

I walked with my beloved

that I never heard

among the herds of Nara

the lonely belling of stags?

 

Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

from Kyoto Spring Love Tanka

Faces

 

Even the faces

of a cherry tree aren’t as

delicately flushed

as my beloved’s face since

we lay together in love.

 

Andrew Lansdown