Thursday, September 5, 2013

Now and Then

Now and Then

A few weeks before
The solstice of September –
A warm cloudless sky

A few yellow marigolds
In the planter by the door

On the wooden deck
(A few planks need replacement)
An abandoned book

On the dust-covered table
A chorus of full moon light

Falls on broken glass
And the gentle counterpoint
Of scattering leaves

“I see now I was deceived.
It is time for you to go.”

Like the melting snow
Often love will slip away
Into yesterday

Where he used to like to play
Office buildings have been built

The new guy feels guilt
For defending a client
Who is filthy rich

Tech-support fixed a glitch,
A virus from who knows where?

Drifting on the air
Great clouds of yellow pollen
Fall on the parked cars

“Please give him my kind regards,
I’m glad he will recover.”

Somewhere or other
(Perhaps it was just a dream)
She is young again

Years like waves roll by and then
There are only a few friends

To remember when
Cherry blossoms always fall
In a brisk warm wind

The tall green grass dips and bends
By a spring at rainbow’s end



2 comments:

Jinksy said...

On the dust-covered table
A chorus of full moon light

Falls on broken glass
And the gentle counterpoint
Of scattering leaves

For me, these lines stood in a spotlight at centre stage... the rest of the cast weren't needed...

Jim714 said...

Thanks for the feedback. I've found that Renga are like that. I mean that there are a few verses in a renga which really stand out. They even talk about this in the Japanese Renga manuals, so it seems to be a feature of the way the form is written. They talk about 'background verses'; meaning verses that form the background for the highlight verses. It's an interesting esthetic all by itself.

Jim