Babbling Falls~~meditation #8

Sri Lanka : photo by Genie Nakano, sometime in 2015?

detergent bubbles
babbling in a brook
chattering mind
Genie Nakano

The falls are in Sri Lanka way up high where the best Ceylon Tea is grown.

A Floating World…poetic history of tanka

genie Nakano

Photo by Genie Nakano, Kyoto Japan, 2018

Before Japan

could read or write,

 tanka was called waka

performed as short songs in five lines

short  long  short   long   long

Heian imperial court

was well versed in  waka

after a love affair

erotic exchanges of waka

was expected proper etiquette

Women

photo: Genie, Kyoto, 2018

were the best of tanka’s golden era

yearning, soaring

tales of love, nature, war

passion prevailed

750 AD the emperor decreed

waka to be recorded for history

4,000 love poems

brushed into exquisite scrolls

Manyoshu completed in 900

five lines, waka

burning, tales of love

nature, war, erotica

themes of long ago Japan

treasured in Manyoshu

waka flourished

for hundred of years

then suddenly jaded

grew out of touch

unconnected to society

pre-world war 1

the poetry bureau censored

and controlled tanka

Asaka-Sha, brotherhood

led by Tekkan Yosan, renamed it tanka

reborn

into a powerful form

tanka became

a relevant force

themes encompassing life

a shining star

Tekkan’s student and to be wife

Akiko Yosano, 1878-1942

sensuous, bold, controversial

her tanka rocked

softly I push open

that door

we call a mystery

these full breasts

held both in my hands  (Akiko Yosano)

twists and turns

and through the labyrinth

radical tanka was born

freeverse, avant garde, modern

published in journals, books, newspapers

Meiji Emperor

the saint of tanka poet

wrote, collected 10,00 tanka

promoted and celebrated

tanka with the world

coming to America

tanka was written and published

In Japanese American

journals and newspapers

currently, I write tanka for Rafu Shimpo

tanka flourished

in WW2 American concentration camps

Isseis and Niseis

wrote tanka to record and heal

their anguish love and despair

in 1957, Lucille Nixon

introduced tanka to white America

honored in Japan

at the Palace Poetry Party

for her tanka poem

today

tanka is international

from Japan

to the USA, Australia Bhutan India

tanka flourishes around the world

Genie nakano,

Performed at Torrance Library, 2020

Meditation#7 Humbling Down

Photo: Genie Nakano, 5/6/20
once
I watched an ant
crawling
the mountains bottom
it started to run
half its legs on the ground
in an alternating tripod gait
with quantum steps
my eyes followed
mind took me to the summit
there I wanted to be
but wind
blew me away
down the other side

breathing in      breathing out
I follow my breath
on a lavender path
where I can see
below above and around

breathing in     breathing out
ants are tickling my feet
carrying morsels
flowers and thyme
I can hear their feet
as I hear them say
"we bring food to the colony
an afterthought party will follow"
am I invited
"yes, if you help out"
so, I follow them
back to the bottom
the sugar is in my pocket

I've humbled down
knowing the other side
breathing in     breathing out
breathing in     breathing out
Genie Nakano