Another Day Another Poem

Today I processed and printed some ballet recital photos of my husband's grand daughter. She is 10 and a beautiful ballerina..I have used her as a model before and hope to photograph her again this summer. Now, I am off to photograph a one year old "baby" for a birthday portrait. I am so busy...getting ready to leave and take care of my father for a month..who is nearing the end of his life. So much going on....birth and death...so closely related....perhaps it is the poets who say it best:



What Issa Heard

Two hundred years ago
Issa heard
the morning birds
singing sutras
to this suffering world.

I heard them too,
this morning,
which must mean

since we will always have
a suffering world
we must also always
have a song.

by David Budbill
contemporary American Poet
written about the Japanese Haiku poet Issa

Poets and Photographers Series Day 1

I have noticed that many photographers love poetry..and that some poets are photographers. I think they are similar art forms..in that they involve SEEING....looking deeply...calmly at the minute details of light, shadow, form..
They evoke an emotional response...to a simple statement..

This is something I love to do and it is easy for me...because I love both art forms..
I am going to try posting a poem or haiku a day..and a photo or two....just for fun..

I hope you will enjoy it....it is easy for me. I am probably not going to be posting my own poetry...but who knows....I will start with my favorite poets. I love haiku and I love other forms of Asian poetry....and I love Mary Oliver (the greatest American poet)..And, these are the poetry books I keep around the house....along with some compilations...so here goes!

Keep it simple, brief....open your eyes and heart..and look around! I dedicate this series to my dearest friend Ivy....a great poet and lover of photography.


Time of summer clothes,
and someone on the pathway through the field,
showing faintly white.



Into water fell
its blossoms and disappeared,
plum tree on the shore.


I can never stop with just one haiku! These two are by Haiku Master Buson (1700s)

In love with Haiku

Today, I don't have as much time as I would like....so whenever I am desperate for poetry without much time...there is haiku.

Basho (1644-1694)
and Buson (1700s) are two of my favorites haiku poets. I think it is wonderful to be thrilled by words written over 300 years ago.

One by Basho,

The snow we two once
looked at together--has it
fallen again this year?

Two by Buson,

Mandarin ducks,
their beauty made apparent
in winter woods.


When the axe cuts in,
surprise at the perfume--
woods in winter.

Feel free to write your own haiku, don't be intimidated by these two venerable haiku masters. I think they would be thrilled to know that their simple words still move us. Or, they might think we were completely insane....oh well..

The rules, if you've forgotten are five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables.

This summer my niece April, the school teacher visited and gave us all a haiku lesson. She teaches her 2nd and third graders every year in the fall. So, she should easily crank out a haiku for our amusement and edification.

This is not haiku..but a tiny poem..
feel free to post one of your own..remember hardly anyone is reading this...
thank goodness...

hee hee

the sky appears gray and empty
but many layers of white, blue and silver,
clouds and mist form this grayness,
this bleakness that surrounds the tangled bare branches,
the sleek hills, the dark silouhetts of fir


well there you have it...my apologies to you brilliant writers...in advance...

Next blog: the finest living poet Mary Oliver