Walt is handling the Poetics for us Today (Tuesday) at dVerse Poets Pub. He is asking us to write about summer and gave us some examples to us use or for us to choose our own (selections by Eliot, Whitman, Sandburg, Rector, Issa) to name a few. I have chosen one by Issa which I have used for inspiration before and probably shall use again and again. Come visit us and dive into summer!
“summer night –
even the stars
are whispering to each other” K. Issa
The Mermaid and the Stars
It is high summer.
I sit on my back steps watching
the stars above me and listening
to the cicadas scratching and clicking
from different points in the yard.
So still it is!
So hot even at this late evening time.
I catch a whiff of the gardenia bush
at the edge of the house –
gentle and sweet and reminding me
of summers long ago.
The moon is high and bright
and surrounded by stars.
A cicada on my right and then
the sound of a cicada across the yard.
Back and forth –
I look up again and the stars
twinkle – I come up for air
like a mermaid gasping for water filled breath.
The stars tell me to be still.
They giggle with each other like little girls
telling secrets.
The mermaid swims to the gardenia
and plucks one for her hair.
She looks at the stars one last time
before she drowns in the scent.
The stars fall silent and go to sleep.
Waterhouse, John William; A Mermaid; Royal Academy of Arts
kanzen sakura 