ゆうだち Yuudachi – sudden evening rain

“Sudden Rain” Author: Takahashi, Shotei (Japanese, 1871-1945)

breathless summer night –
wind rushes, quick taps on leaves
sudden evening rain.

dVerse Poets Pub and NaPoWriMo16

Source: Amenic 181/ StockPhoto

Today, at dVerse Poets Pub, Meeting the Bar, Anna has given us directions to bring out the inner logophile in us, to  think about our diction or word choices as we write our poem; to build a poem around a favorite word or collecting a vocabulary, maybe to write in the style of a poet we particularly admire.  Are we using too many of the same words or phrases?  Try building a poem around a favorite word or collecting our vocabulary before writing your verses. She challenges us to find new expression.

I am a longtime admirer of T.S.Eliot, Emily Dickinson, and Basho.   Their style and use of simple words or a unique word to convey thought is something that deeply impressed me when I first began reading them.  I am using this for dVerse MTB and also as the optional prompt for NaPoWriMo16.

Smell of Rain

Petrichor – odd word.
When a sudden summer shower
Drenches the parched soil,
Or blesses the newly dug soil
Of my garden –
This is that smell.

I do not stand in my garden
Inhaling that marvelous scent
and say in a worshipful whisper:
Petrichor.

But I do breathe in that fragrance
Willing it to fill me – entirely.
Absorbing it slowly – savoring, relishing –
Treasuring it and praying that one day
When I am old and away from such smells
I will remember: Petrichor
I will close my eyes and again smell that fragrance
Of rain on dry soil and allow that memory to
Lead me to gentle sleep.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #70

The challenge today was to add on verses to a haiku – a renga.
The original haiku is by our host and evokes a lovely peaceful image:
sweet perfume
mingles with the sound of rain –
a dog barks (c) © Chèvrefeuille

Uchu no take ni suzume (Sparrows and rain)
sweet perfume
mingles with the sound of rain –
a dog barks
sparrows play fluttering their
wings chirping joyful rain songs

Utagawa Hiroshige 1797-1858
Sparrows and willows in rain (Uchu no take ni suzume),
Polychrome wood block

 

Linked to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:  http://chevrefeuill escarpediem.blogspot.se/2015/01/carpe-diem-tan-renga-challenge-70.html

The Walk lV – The Heron

Gray rainy day,
Steady drops changed his Umbrella into a drum.
Rain, plops of drops
Around them.  No conversation
But man and woman agreed – the hill.
They both walked to the
Cherry trees at the top of
the hill, rain spattered pond below.

The grey heron stood
In the pond blithely ignoring
The falling rain.
Knowing him well, the woman
Balanced herself down the slope
To stand on the rock
That reached out
Into the small pond. The heron
Stood still, waiting for
The bread she held in
Her hand.  They’ve done this before.
Bread dropped and floated on
The water bobbing
Before he quickly scooped it up
With his long bill.

The man at the top of
The hill laughed in delight but
Halted at her upright
Hand.  “He doesn’t know
You.  Stay there. “   She climbed back up
The slope to stand and
Watch the heron as
He finished his treat.
Envious geese muttered
And flapped their wings.

The man is quiet
and waits for the heron to
Fly away.  The cherry trees drip
And the rain softly
Falls around them.
“No wonder this seems like home
To me.”  He whispered.
“I could be happy
In such a small grove of trees
With a pond nearby.
There was a place like this,
Near our home.”
He held out his hand,
solemnly watching the rain
create a tiny pond in the palm of his hand.
“寒雨 Kanu.” He whispered. (cold winter rain)

She smiled at him.
He walked her back to
Her office, holding the
Umbrella carefully over her.
“I want to come here again”
He whispered.
“Then we shall.”
She bowed deeply to him.
“おかえり Okaeri” (welcome home)
He bowed in return.
“ただいま Tadaima.” (I’m home).

Wordless Wednesday

               

rain

I awake to find

my pillow wet with tears. cold

rain falls in the night.

スズメ Suzume

sparrows squabble in
the rain over an earthworm –
silent wrens steal it.

優しい雨

invisible night
rain: darkness weeps – tears not mine
blind my drowsy eyes

 

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.