Summer sun falling
Student waiting for teacher
Bird flies overhead
Summer sun falling
Student waiting for teacher
Bird flies overhead
“Draw it tall”, he tells me, gesturing wide
“Open yourself all the way, and remember — ”
…
Warriors laugh and eat
as gentle snow starts to fall
on the streets outside
Not a single star in the sky
Just heavy grey clouds
The air is cold in a way that doesn’t hurt
But instead wakes us as we laugh
Outside the dojo space and time tonight
…
Winter approaches:
making next year’s training plans
under waxing moon
Cool hints of autumn:
Despite white circle waning
Kindness still from all
There were friends there.
I think there were so many friends there.
Surrounded, surrounded!
Some smiled with their eyes.
Some surprised me with their remembrance.
Most, I barely knew.
I turn my thoughts backwards,
steering into nearby memories of
that gathering place now behind me,
gently observing through my mind’s eye.
…
My mind is my worst enemy.
Panic is barely suppressed.
Movements feel too large, false;
Brain is electrified,
Eyes are seeing but not seeing,
Thoughts absent;
Mind automatic, vapid.
It feels forever unconquerable.
Comments closedReading, hearing
Again and again as if sacred
Teachings passed down
Sensei to sensei to sensei
Spanning generations
All the way down
To a lowly student dreaming
Seeking that unattainable
Perfection
May they never find it
February 15, 2025
Comments closedHer thumb resting calmly
On the tsuba at her waist
Hakama straight, gi tidy
Bare feet still
But eager to move…
(A poem about a federation-style jodo kata.)
Comments closed