Best Japan Poems
Pipe Dreams
Though I have a woman’s heart; it pounds with
dragon’s fire. Curled about the core of self,
I have lain in wait for Asia with claw, and horn.
Linked-locks and keys have spined beneath my hand
upon the tourist’s rails of China’s Great Wall where
builder’s bones rattle for redress upon the wind.
It is not China’s Long but Ryu ’s heart which pounds.
This was no place, no place for me.
Paper boats zhezhi have blessed my dreams. The
Divine Wind eases my way across a sea of longing
to Nippon. My two-chambered
heart can have but one loyalty—
I say no to the soldiers,
strident in beige and red—
Senkaku’s waves buoy me.
Buddhist temples waver mirage-like in
a gray-white haze of frankincense, the scent
of ever after, lays about me.
For links of love and family, are stronger,
than those of coercion and the gun—I will
island shelter—refine remnants—separate myself
from clay become porcelain—
beneath tori arches; I walk.
A stream in Kyoto
a bronze statue of a ballerina
dancing on point
within a circle
of gnats—
First Published in the Spring of 2017 by Illumen
Origami soul
Pressed in rice paper tightly
A tomb of beauty
Memory of Geisha's heart
Tsunami tears in albums...
www.scripca.com
*Image of Japanese Elm Tree by CBC.
Japan Surrenders
Japan's crimson sun disrobes a dawning night rise sky,
An elm tree parasol's her coral samurais while they lie.
2022 February 22
*1st Place*
A BRIAN STRAND SHORTIE
~~Brian Strand: Judged 2022 February 23
*2nd Place*
Bite Size Poem No.37
~~Line Gauthier: Judged 2022 March 01
All About Japan
A feather plummets slacks downwards,
a sparrowhawk caught prey soars upwards,
bonsai trees grow its shadow midst sunrise,
cherry blossoms shade a path,
sugis eclipse a shrine,
maguro (tuna) swims the deep ocean,
unagi (eel) curves nearby Mount Fuji,
tako (octopus) struts whilst in motion,
fugu (pufferfish) deadly still, yummy,
pink perianths float
touch air then dabbles a creek
~clear blue spills cherries
2020 September 20
*1st Place*
Writing Challenge - Nature, Four in One
~~Constance La France
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Jovial Dr Jekyll played for juvenile Justice
a just jaspered journey
jokingly jumped a joyride
to juicy jukebox jabbering
in jackal jackboots
from nearby jungle
Dr Jekyll clasped a jackknife eating
jambalaya to justify a
juggled juxtapositional
jurisdiction jamming
as jugular vein jingled jewels
joyfully jauntily jaywalking
to a jay named Jim Jolly !
Onward he jumped to a
Jungian junction
Jupiter jocund watching his
journeying joints
journalese seemed a jibe jig
but neither Jewess, Jesuit
or jeweller jiggled this job
So he jerked his jess
like a jape for Japan
Jejuning onto January for the
next jangle of jasmine
No jellyfish was Dr Jekyll in Jordanian jerkin
though sometimes Mr Hyde
with jeroboam swirling alongside !
Through one of the blackest day
In their ancient history
Emerges Japan, though a little burnt
But spring has come again
Cherry blossoms bloom
In their gentle hearts
Along the dream paths
They see the world change forever
The rolling rice fields blossoms
Sparkling children play in the fresh snow
Sowing the seeds for generations to come
The garden is again
A home to butterflies
The evening sky has opened
To cherish these vibrant people
This was not an end
But a new beginning
Shogi
me?
I can barely play Go Fish
Old Maid is well over my head
Shogi?
I think not
Shogi: Japanese chess
where you get to use your
opponent’s captured army
Winter Comes to Japan (Kyoka)
Aki’s “Koharu
Biyori” is overwhelmed
by Fuyu Shogun’s
mofubuki, but Japan
enjoys the hatsuyuki.
***
Yuki: Winter
Aki: Autumn
Koharu Biyori: Little Spring Weather (Indian Summer)
Fuyu Shogun: Winter General
Mofubuki: fierce snowstorm
Hatsuyuki: first snow of the season
The artist Hokusai memorialized,
In his woodblock print of raging seas,
The great wave off Kanagawa,
That brought Nippon to its knees.
Again the modern rising sun is caught,
In the wrath of shifting plates,
And the belch of a feral tsunami,
Which left millions unsure of their fates
Waves swallowed the archepelico.
Mount Fuji stood at the ready to defend.
The islands won the battle with nature,
But Japans ill's will take years to mend.
Grace and will fills the souls of surviviors
Ancestors fortitude flows through their veins.
They will try to accept lifes yin and yang,
While resolving the tragedy that remains.
The flying cranes wings are strong.
Broad and feathered to deal with lifes tests.
Through centuries they have learned many lessons,
On how to rebuild and strengthen their nests.
There is a lilt to their eyes, a sassy to their attitude.
They know themselves well, drawn in living color.
Alive, dancing through their day, being admired greatly.
Characters who are not afraid to be themselves.
A trusty funny sidekick always building up the heroine
Who falls in love with the prince who is pretending to be regular.
Wanting her for her love of his soul, not for her love of money.
Their hair has a certain dash and flair not found in other drawings.
Their eyes have the little white circles enhancing their black centers.
There is a certain way they have to be drawn, a pattern, approved.
Their clothes are always pretty much the same. How do they do it?
How do they manage to make lines turn into a fantastical reality?
With just a few lines, the animator has thrown me into a new world.
A place to escape from my troubles, woes, and humdrum stuff.
For a little bit I am dancing and prancing through my hero's eyes,
In her body, or his, doing what I have always imagined doing.
This escape is like meditation for others, maybe prayer even.
I am in the throes of the escapade, and cannot hear my family.
My friends know not to try and get my attention. I am in the zone.
Anime and manga both intrigue and uplift my soul daily.
Japan, land of rising SUN
Faced Natures devastation
Tsunami, earthquake obliterated cities
Lost all but not hope, maturity, sanity
Collective harmony, community first attitude
No honking, no mad overtaking; only understanding on jammed roads
No shoplifting when lights fused in malls
Mature media, compassionate humanity
No bloodcurdling visuals of chest beating or wild grief
No hypocrisy of help by Politicians
Well cultivated patience, doggedness to move on
Relief work, removal of debris, building roads at amazing speed
No mass scale panic on tanking of stocks, yen vulnerability
Cultured dignity, dignified grace
Disciplined queues for water, groceries, no chaotic scenes, squabbles
People buying to meet present need, so everybody could get something.
High moralistic Human values
Restaurants cut prices, no burglary at unguarded ATM
Plain speak on Nuclear threat levels
Japanese have done it before
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings could only maim not rein
Tsunami and earthquake could only dissolve few cities not their resolve
Crisis handling, innate to Japanese
God gave volcanoes
They marshalled art of baking on it rather than getting charred
Japan, the land of rising SON
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Hitendra Mehta
May 2011
For Members Contest - Trubute to Japan by Debbie Guzzi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There once was a woman from Japan
She went by the name of Faye-Lynn
A ninja with beauty
To kill was her duty
Her weapon was seduction of man
Beautiful moments each day
Reveal that sometimes only a moment away
Peaceful moments are broken with earth’s violent response
To an unprovoked attack that we wish was just once
But what rises from a devastation of life
Is a spirit revealed, born out of strife
From a people well balanced in all that matters
That even with their world in tatters
A nation’s mind, body, and spirit is revealed
In ways that should never be concealed
Respect, love and caring for your fellow man
Is a healing of all that matters in a land called Japan
For Debbie Guzzi’s Tribute To Japan Contest
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a torn sun once wholly wise, the kind that sparkled whistling eyes
now a broken porcelain ,echoing screams from windows’ stain
booming through shattered rooms, waters of black -skinned moons
swish-swash slammed again, those gulps that cannot quite explain
why serenity obi-sashed in stenciled rite, as current raged into that night
of damp coal rimmed with mold, of hours drowning seismic cold
until each mouth a frozen ice, a scarred evening’s genocide
faltering without one chance, like rakes in dark shadow’s prance .
oh, rage that flung in past times, they murmured lantern chimes
in every road and churn, more fires ate the swelling burn
bones splintered from space; some offered vows, some said grace
now, thousands seek felicity, to slowly walk in dignified tenacity
hands pluck the soil, the rice fields; etching fresh name with gentle shields
as if to trace what’s left behind, on crepe stars a new hope they will find
the promise of a waking sun, to toil and build till weary nights are gone
and once more claim the gold of sky, until hearts’ wounds are mended dry.
*each line is a rhyme in itself
all rights reserved
©
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SPONSOR: Debbie Guzzi
CONTEST: Tribute to Japan
I try not to say
Sorry to Japan the morn
Sunshine of Asia
I won’t be tempted
To further cloud this sore heart
With my sea water
It is not distance
That holds back the salty fluid
From my eyes but love
My own apartment
Is flooded with Japanese
Electronic stuffs
My countrymen are
Just like the moving sun and
Cannot not be there
My American
Friend’s a teacher in China
Shining so, so close
Japan has become
My backyard in this new world
Small global village
And the eyes also
Suffer the heat of pepper
Eaten by the mouth
So your pain, Japan
Has clouded my sanity
Yet I say weep not!
For by blood have kings
Wore their crowns; and with blood have
Empires been painted
And in blood do women
Deliver forth newborn babes
Blood brings good tidings
By blood had Asia
Risen above its storms. Ask
India, ask China
So weep not Japan
For blood does bring good tidings
In all climes and times
Let the rain wash off
The pain from your memory
The rite is over
Let the sun renew
Your seas and shores to prepare
You for the new dawn.