Strange days around the Equinox, this far north. There must be places on earth where the concept is unknown, where night and day are more-or-less equal all year round, and nightfall and daybreak are like the flipping of a switch. I wouldn’t know, of course, because it’s not in my experience. I have summers where half-darkness hardly lasts four hours, and gloaming comes mid-afternoon in winter.
I mention all this because I’m wondering how people elsewhere in the world manage their month-by-month, day-by-day environment, how they notice and mark them, what effect it has on them. In this Showcase we have contributors from India, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, USA, Belarus, Italy, Pakistan, and Finland. They’re all northern-hemisphere, but from totally different environments and all writing in English. One of them uses specifically Japanese imagery, another American. It’s too easy to see some commonality of experience, as each is given equal place in the Showcase and all use the same medium of expression…
I promised you monochrome visuals this time, and accordingly I have found the portraits by Man Ray, 20c modernist photographer. I love black/white photography, because the results seem to have such startling vérité. I love Many Ray, I love Robert Doisneau for his documentation of Paris, I love the glossy monochrome of photos in old magazines. That vérité speaks to me of a moment, every time. Even Man Ray’s surrealism is realistic at a psychological level. I hope you will enjoy them too.
Marie Marshall
editor
the zen space
__________
Basant Kumar Das
.
end game
remnants of love song
in background
.
bride’s farewell
tied in her dupatta
dried basil leaves
.
many memories
connecting the clouds
two white birds
.
fragile frame
lotus petals swing
in breezy morning
.
still eve
journey of memories
in monsoon wind
.
first month of rain
under wet hay stacks
wild mushrooms
__________
Vandana Parashar
.
divorce
I colour the portrait
with broken crayons
.
lawn mowing
mom asks from where did I get
my buzz cut
.
girls’ night out
biting into a taco
we size up the guys
.
backless blouse
all the eyes on her
swaying hair
.
jewellery box
all his ripped out buttons
strung with memories
__________
Goran Gatalica
.
another autumn
fragile maple leaves
stitched together
.
summer deepens
flashing in the sunlight
the tea pickers
.
transient sunlight
the vitality of wisteria
across a grassy hill
.
summer on porch
a male blackbird explores
world in my palms
.
end of summer
in bluebird’s beak
sense of freedom
__________
Pravat Kumar Padhy
.
tea flowers–
plucking warmth
of life
.
twilight shades–
I gather my wisdom
to enlighten
.
a long journey–
my limitation in between
the sea and the sky
.
tea leaves–
the baby plucks
mother’s smile
.
hatsuhi–
fresh warmth
of haiku writing
.
a tiny bird flies past Mt. Fuji my ego disappears
__________
Lavana Kray
__________
Radostina A. Dragostinova
.
uncropped sunflower field
her face
she glances at him
.
autumn sundown
a pumpkin silhouette
in the window-pane
.
early morn
seagulls squeal
slices the sky
.
my daughter’s wakening
bright rainbow
in the summer sky
.
hospital window
everything seems irreversible
inside…and out
.
rain drop
the depth of
your silence
__________
Mike Matthews
.
The Question of the Breeze
Let me say that I have lost
a few pounds in sweat alone.
There either was a breeze,
or there was not a breeze.
With the heat coming from above
and from below, radiating from the concrete,
and added the magnificence of walking
across a bridge like this one,
pausing to look onto the rice fields,
across the tops of flowers and a stream
to a mountain across the valley,
the field full of green is enough
to cancel one’s desire for a breeze.
.
Hooked in Water
There is a lake,
always a lake.
There is a tree,
always a tree.
There is someone fishing,
and fishing, and fishing
sitting very still
with a simple pole,
one line in the water.
I rest in the water
pierced by the hook
waiting for the fish to be hungry.
__________
Philmore Place
.
house for sale
wasps build a nest
in a holed roof
.
the song of cicada –
the same that Basho listened to
or another?
.
the evening is quieter
sleepy baby sitting over a plate
with a Shoppe salad
.
apartment bill
we leave for later
an apple in specks
.
abandoned pond
only clouds come there
and leave again
.
outgoing
summer days – waves
play with a sandal
__________
Angela Giordano
.
stormy sea-
s’adagia on the rocks
full moon
.
sunrise on the mountains-
in the cup of coffee
the last star
.
a bee parked
above the withered flowers-
autumn echoes
.
above the barges
humanity on the way-
winds of peace
.
empty nests-
schools are filled
of many voices
.
distant thunder-
the grandfather no longer hears
from an ear
__________
Hifsa Ashraf
.
salvation
the waterfall turns
into the mist
.
pelican’s pouch
carries the light
of autumn dawn
.
self-denial
seeking the light
without shadows
.
grain sorghum
with autumn shades
harvest time
.
confession
the lotus blooms
in mud water
.
heatwave
widening the cracks
in parched land
__________
M. Von Taren
.
The cooling fan
blowing gently
hums so quiet
.
Blue sky
around me
I fly
.
A dark sauna
radiates warmth
and silence
.
The sunset
above the clouds
purple sky
.
Vast emptiness
filled with silence
– Now
__________
Daniel Marshall
.
Four Impressions
.
I lean across
the rose to clear
its bed | trust
its pressing thorn
against
my throat.
.
A trick of light sprang out
— I would know again
in the quick of it
—I’m sure it came
from inside somewhere.
What good is beauty
in the hood of night?
.
At times a hush
carpets everywhere
—we feel an atmosphere
close by | pinching
our nerves awake like
a startled doe.
.
His old hands
—fingers thick as gutta-percha
& thought run on voltage
or not a flicker.
Alcohol breath. Gaudy laugh.
Guides the A/C
—makes a current dance
in a sleeping wire.
__________
The latest edition of Contemporary Haibun Online is now published. Go here to see.
Readers may like to check out this essay on “the japanese haiku and so on.”
The next Showcase at the zen space will be Winter 2019 which will be released, subject to karma, on 1st January 2019.
Please note that the copyright of all written work and images used in this Showcase and elsewhere in the zen space is held by the creating author/artist, even when not explicitly stated, and may not be used elsewhere without permission.
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