Poems and photos from Lake Biwa by James Woodham

spider walks the air
unspooling from his being
lifelines of silver

where the wind takes it
how light a life that’s floating
shadow on the sand

Santoka* walking –
nothing between him and death
haiku and sake

gift of his whole life
Santoka into the wind 
ragged spirit free

reeds flailed by the wind                         
cry of the crow through torn cloud
sun smashed on the waves 
                     
crows hang the branches 
with cacophony of sound
raggedly flapping

now and then a bird
sends out its notes across the sky
carol to no one

bird song floats into                      
the mists of meditation                                     
perches in the mind                                         

blessing of the lake –                       
ducks given all this mirror
to float nothing on

ripples at the shore
pebbles underwater 
clarity surreal

autumn still as glass
all the silence of the sky
all the lakelong blue

it’s all so clear now!
dust of a thousand days
wiped from the I-phone

lake instrumental –                                    
sun sparkles random notes       
jazzing the surface

yellow butterfly                                                        
leaves off writing its sky dance
to settle, a leaf

trail of ivy leaves
scarlet in the autumn sun
necklace for the rocks

the wind passing through
nowhere no one no body only
where it goes

the cat stops mid-scratch 
leg still raised eyes caught
by the air’s movement

the cat unmoving
eyes slowly closing feeling all 
that there is there

at the end of day                                           
slowly flapping from the reeds                                                     
herohero** heron                                                                            

hardly a ripple
the lake gunmetal grey
duck glides the silence

rain gentles the mind
giving it a space of grey
letting the thoughts drop

the rain relentless  
a liquid blind of sound
drowning vision

wings soaked in sunlight                                           
dragonflies under silver cloud
zipping the day up

the waves loquacious                          
liquid song unending 
search  for melody

Notes

*Santoka Taneda (1882 -1940). Free-form haiku poet, inveterate drinker, and lover of the open road, he walked the length and breadth of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, an estimated distance of about 45,000 kilometres.

**herohero (Jap.): ‘completely exhausted’, ‘thoroughly worn out’.

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For previous contributions by James Woodham, please see the striking poems and stunning photography here.  Or here. Or here. Or here. For his most recent postings, see A Single Thread here, or The Wind’s Word here, and for Vagabond Song click here.