The Necklace

Open link night at dVerse tonight. You can submit any one poem of your choice. Come join us. Bjorn is tending the pub all the way over in Sweden!  He has a special guest today – Sean Michael – a prisoner in the California penal system who frequently posts on dVerse.  Open Link Night #178 – Saving Grace

The Necklace
After you left I kept thinking you would return.
And because you so loved the small beauties
and the simple things, I kept the memories.
I wanted to embed them in molten glass
and string them on a fine gold chain
that you could wear under your clothes
close to your heart,
to pull the chain up and look at those simple things
and see them through my eyes that saw them without you:
the way the mist lay close to the ground
in the late autumn,
or the sound of birds the morning of the first snow.
The tiny new kittens boneless and blind
opening their pink mouths and silently hissing.
The last string of geese flying south
in the apricot dawn,
the velvet eyes of the young heifer in my friend’s barn
and the warm smell of the animals and hay,
the first tiny pink cherry blossom opening slowly
in the cold of early spring
or the ever spreading ripples in the koi pond
made by slow rain.
you never returned.
and the necklace of memories sleeps
in a small wooden box
never touched by your hand or seen by your eyes.

fuyu aozora 冬青空 Blue Winter Sky

blue winter sky looks
down on frozen earth and dreams
of cherry blossoms.

Koyo 紅葉

for Ross Haiku challenge #RSRgenrehaiku

kanzen sakura

leaves softly falling
watching them I think of you
I hold one to my lips

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karenohara 枯野原

ice falls. Brown field sleeps.
Withering wind blows away
life. Distant hill sleeps.

雨氷

Fuyu no tsuki (winter moon)
freezing rain, winter begins
the night is too long.

rain

I awake to find

my pillow wet with tears. cold

rain falls in the night.

Getting There

Miles pass quickly.
Flickering lights
Approach
Meet
Behind.
I seek escape
From too many one sided
conversations.
The radio is mute
I have enough songs in my head.
Bits and pieces escape my lips.
Wind in my hair.
I sigh and it is captured
by the wind and tossed aside.

I stay within the limit
Cautious even in my brief escape.
When did the wild girl
Become the cautious woman?

 

Saturday Afternoon: Later

He sat on the back steps
Watching as she went through forms
He had taught her.
The wakizashi flashed in the late day sun.
Her movements were swift and sure.

She was oblivious to all around her,
Intent, intense, concentrating but also, instinctive.
His lovely wren with the heart of a falcon.
Now she ceremoniously replaced the sword
In her scabbard and bowed to her invisible opponent.

Impulsively he ran down the steps
As she walked to the house.
He grabbed her and pulled her close to him,
Willing their bones to meld.
I love you, please never leave me, he murmured.

She held him and he felt her speaking against him.
He pulled her face up so he could see.
She gazed at him and then said, I’ll never leave you.
He did not and could not know the full reply he didn’t hear.
I’ll never leave you but one day, you will leave me.

Story in Six Words: 初雪 hatsu yuki

Summer night:
I dream
of snow.

Story in Six Words: 夜明け

samurai waits
gazes westward
sighs longingly

Anata ga inakute totemo samishii desu

You left years ago

Today:  Memories can’t fill

empty arms.  Cold ashes from

White hot passion blow

Like ghosts through my waking dreams.

And the love spans oceans still.
あなたがいなくてとても寂しいです

Summer Solstice: Prequel 06/14 12:59 a.m. tanka

 

Warm summer night: storm
has passed…soft rain baptizes
me a supplicant
of peace alone in the night
heart open to hold the stars.