A New World Sings

Photo by Gabriela Palai on Pexels.com

the train lost speed
and just plain stopped
everyone
got off and stood
staring at the tracks

mother cow
jumps over the old man
in the moon
milk spills everywhere
luna-tics start spraying silver bullets

deep in the forest
things settle into a snooze
while urban women
blare a new kind of music
you’ve got to hear it…

I can’t explain it
you just have to be here
dance and move
to a new formed rhythm
with a universal beat

Can’t
dream it nor stream it
must be in real time,
Right now, right now
let a new world sing

Clickety clack
the train picks up the beat
just like that
the train
is back on track.

GEnie Nakano
9/26/15

I wrote this poem years ago (9-26-15) coming out of the doldrums and slight depression. I edited it “just a little” to complement the way I feel today. I’m coming out of sadness and back on track.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Toto in Rainbow Meadows

Toto our loving dog of 17 years died last week. My husband had just came home from being in the hospital for four days. He had a mini-stroke. Then Toto passed 4 days later– October 22, 2020. I haven’t been able to write since–fortunately our good friend Irene Furukawa wrote this lovely prose for Toto…

They love you oh so very, very  much, and are missing you terribly now.

You have gone to Rainbow Meadows.  All your hurting and pain are gone. You are perfect now.

Thank you Toto, for all the wonderful and marvelous everyday moments you spent and gave to your dear family.

Many of us relatives and friends of Hideki and Genie Knew and loved you.  
We will remember you with much love and affection.

Enjoy now your operfect life in Rainbow Meadows and know that your are loved by many here on Planet Earth.

Irene and Aki
Photos of Toto and Hideki by Genie Nakano





“Umbrella”

photograph: by Genie Nakano, Turkey, 2015

The day I wrote this tanka October 14, 2020 my husband Hideki had a stroke. I finished meditating and was compelled to write it. I had no idea he was out in the world and was having a stroke. Hideki, drove himself van to emergency hospital and stayed for 4 days. He is out of the hospital and luckily he survived! Doctors will watch and monitor his heart, and he is on heavy duty medication–“he is still not out of the woods”.

Umbrella

You
are my umbrella
you keep me cool
when it’s too hot
protect me from the storm

My best friend and confidant,
my special sparring partner
we stay
strong
until death do us part.

Genie Nakano, Oct. 14, 2020





Photograph: Genie Nakano, Turkey

Waiting…

Photo by: Evelyn Sato, October 13, 2020

No…
cutting my hair
until
Covid is Controlled
the weight of it…

Genie Nakano, Oct. 13, 2020

When the quarantine began in Los Angeles in March 2020 my hair was shoulder length. Today Oct.15, 2020–Thursday, my hair is almost to my waist and I’ve gained a few pounds along with it–“the weight of it”.

An Enchanting Tanka

     I am back to working with our local Gardena Newspaper in L.A. county. Here is my latest contribution. I took the photo in Vietnam, 2010. It's a palace but sorry I can't remember where it was. If anyone knows where this photo is -- please tell me. 
     I suggest new writers approach their local newspapers for exposure.  I started as a journalist with a column, "Genie's Lamp" and later a poetry column, "Tanka Tales".  Now it's what it is....

Ying Yang Moon

Photographer: Genie Nakano, 2016

darkness, lightness
yin yang, yang yin
man…woman
animal…human
we have many lives

beaming down
on my skin a silver moon…
how can needs be fulfilled
when what is wanted
is not needed

a turtle floated
to the island’s shore
years ago
my father rode on his back
to the bottom of the sea

waves rolling
across the sand
just a dream
soft and tender
I believe in Miracles

an ocean
shimmering with anima
pulls back and forth
back and forth…
make your foot prints now.

Genie Nakano,
originally published in my book, “Colorful Lives”, 2016