“At first their names too were borrowed from the Chinese, meaning that they did not always conform to the vagaries of our local climate. Eventually, in 1685, the court astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai revised them and in their present form they now serve to illustrate a natural, poetic pilgrimage through the ever-changing landscape of the Japanese year!” Read more: https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2018/05/the-poetry-and-precision-of-japans-72-microseasons
For Poetry Month 2019, 1-30 April, I have been creating a daily three-line piece on the theme ’72 Seasons: Three Lines that are True’. Unlike other years, I am using the older proponents of haiku as my mentors with their focus on close observation and their trust in the moment-as-it-is and with an emphasis (though not strictly observed in my case) on the natural world. A nod here too, as always, to the go-between that is Imagism. Find the middle 10 below.
11.04.2019
talking about art
artificial air
a real fear of falling
12.04.2019
scent-notes non-blending
garlic sweat and aftershave
blocked sewer and sweet magnolia
13.04.2019 – Castle Ward
first bluebells
a dandelion clock poised for take-off
animal scat mostly composed of seeds
14.04.2019
last sunday of advent
adding lemon juice to warmed fresh milk
curdled milk to baking soda
15.04.2019
high wind
sirens
a recorded version of Fauré’s Requiem
16.04.2019
a day for looking forward
weather forecast – good and bad in it –
making lists
17.04.2019
new takes on old recipes
top-hat types: hen-shaped mallow and candy eggs
frozen berries with experimental crumble
18.04.2019
this walk by the river is called Jane’s Shore
I don’t know who Jane is
the hollow stump seems to have become hollower.
19.04.2019
hot cross buns
gluten-free crumpets
everything is improved by melting butter
20.04.2019
im Lyra McKee
holiday saturday, spring sun on a bluebell path
and were you there? did you see which hands held the gun
that, just last night, took the life of this sacred woman?
