dVerse Poets Pub – OLN #191

Today is Open Link Night (OLN) over at dVerse Poets Pub. Gayle is our host today and sadly, this is her last go as Pubtender. She is an amazing talent and is one of the kindest people around. She will most definitely be missed. I know I will miss her. So come by the dPub and read some excellent poems. Today I am doing a haibun in order to get in on Frank’s prompt last week of writing prose poetry. https://dversepoets.com/2017/03/09/open-link-night-191/

The Samurai and the Sparrow
Hot summer in the South – a feeling of walking around in a bowl of hot oatmeal when one ventures outside. But the air was sweet with magnolia, honeysuckle, night blooming jasmine, roses…my life was obsessed with smells that year. But this Saturday there was to be an exhibition of Kendo; several Hachi-dan Hanshi sparring against each other. I had just started dating a man who was arrogant, thought his long blonde hair made him look like a Nordic badass, and he was also into Kendo, at a higher level than I. He wasn’t great but he was an amusement. One of the men in the exhibition line caught my eye immediately. He was truly one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. The participants all bowed and when he looked up at the sparse audience, I gasped. He looked me right in the eyes. You could have walked on the bolt that shot between us. The man beside me heard me gasp and looked at me with a frown. “What’s so great about him?” he muttered. I turned and looked at him with a sniff. “Other than he is gorgeous and dressed in a black silk hakama? Other than the fact that he is obviously good?” I had to laugh. My date got up and left. Fine with me.

I watched the Japanese man avidly. He was a bit taller than most Japanese me and he had his hair pulled up into a warriors knot (not those silly “man” buns of today) and in his belt were tucked the two swords – katana and wakizashi. He was carrying daisho – literally “big little” referring to the two swords. Every once in awhile, he would slightly break his concentration and find me in the audience. I shivered. I clearly had an admirer. Why I do not know. I was plain. My long dark hair was worn in a braid down my back, I was wearing glasses. I was under five feet tall – four feet 10 inches. He was gorgeous and moved like a tiger on ball bearings. Swift, graceful, lethal, powerful, passionate. But something in me spoke to him as something in me answered. Do you believe in love at first sight? Never ever put it down. Something started that day that after 35 years still resounds. It is hidden now but it is still there. I heard when he returned to Japan, he never married.

magnolias scent the
summer air – moths come to the
flame – wings become singed

old snapshot taken in Duke U Medical Library

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue(s) Of You… and surviving cancer

 

Six years ago, I was told I had ovarian cancer – a cancer that is almost always fatal because it is usually found so late and mimics symptoms of other diseases.

These are my hues for today:  sky blue and pure white clouds – autumn sky – aki no sora

I left work and drove to the country.  I parked on a hillside and climbed onto the hood of my car.  I leaned back and gazed above me to the bright autumn blue sky with white clouds drifting above me. I lay back for most of the afternoon and gazed at the beauty above me.   I was alive due to a miracle beyond my understanding, due to a careful doctor who was hyper-vigilant and took pap smears from higher than normal, thus finding the cancer at ground zero, due to encouragement, pray, the grace of God, amazing medical care.

Here I am today, posting a picture of this glorious sky.  These are my hues: life, living life with passion, taking time to live that life.

Live your life with passion.  Whatever hues there may be in your life, let the hues of passion, joy, belief, and gratitude be among those hues.

All of you, be blessed.

Information about the blogging challenges can be found at:  Follow The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements, and subscribe to our newsletter — we’ll highlight great photos from each month’s most popular challenge

October 1 Morning

and after the night
lofty clouds, flushed with passion,
greet us with no shame

Wild Summer Love

Blackberry canes bloom.

Delicate white blossoms dance

On dangerous canes.

 

Teasing, tempting me.

Tantalizing  memories

Of exotic wine.

 

Tart sweet dark juices

Explode in my mouth.  Summer

Loves cannot compare.

 

Pluck with care.  Eat with

Passion.  Berry rush quickens

My pulse, sates my senses.

 

 

The Pianist – 雅

 

The music is soft
And drips from him like gentle
Rain. The notes quietly

Patter like drops on
Leaves, lulling, luring me
To wander the path.

Beguiled, I follow
Him to a place of quiet.
Tenderly he leads.

A storm explodes and
His hands move with swiftness and
Intense passion. The

Rain is a tempest,
A frenzy of wind, seething
And ripping the leaves.

And then….silence. The
Storm is over.The pianist
Sits, drained, emptied.

He stands and leaves the
Room. I go to touch the keys,
And find them still warm

From his passionate
Touch. On the keys are drops of
Blood, wrenched from his soul.