Summer 2018 Showcase

This time I really am late – my bad! But better late than never, of course, and this week has galvanised me and others into action. I can’t speak for the others, but I have no idea whatsoever where I’m currently getting all my energy from – the weather here in Scotland has been making me lethargic. We’ve been having a major drought since May. Hardly a day’s rain has come our way. Those of you who know what a Scottish summer is like will be surprised at that, as the traditional joke is that one can tell what time of year it is in Scotland by the temperature of the rain. Warm rain denotes summer. Well, not this year.

Before I go any further, I must mention Arnie, the cat belonging to Doodlemum – Doodlemum, you will remember, provided the illustrations for the previous Showcase. Arnie, who had been fighting diabetes, died shortly after the Showcase was published. Doodlemum’s blog reported a cat-shaped hole in their lives. The loss of an animal companion (I never say ‘pet’) is remarkably hard to bear, sometimes, it seems, harder than the loss of a human friend. Why is that? Anyway, the Doodle household now has another feline resident (I won’t say ‘replacement’) by the name of Renee.

On to this Showcase. It is a mixed bag, and that’s good. Illustrations this time are the amazing photographs of Elan Mudrow. Many thanks to her! Elan notices things, and when she notices them, she photographs them. Posting them, she makes pithy comments. There is something momentary and alive about this process, but I am featuring them here entirely without captions, in order to leave impression and interpretation to you. In some cases I shall use a detail rather than the whole image. Visit her web pages if you wish to find out more.

Elan’s visual art is complimented this time by a set of photographic haiga by Bill Waters.

Next Showcase, I’m going to feature photography again, so please think about Photography/portraits/monochrome while you compose words for me. As always, I’m looking for new names to go alongside the regular contributors. Here’s a question for you: up to now I have not put any of my own work in the Showcase – should I?

Marie Marshall
editor
the zen space

__________

Surbhi Grover

:

the journey
to your heart
rose stems

:

we reminisce
our childhood
mud puddles

:

climbing out
the silver lining
turns orange

:

we switch off
all cockpit lights
star gazing

:

a deserted plot
flowers grow
everywhere

:

a family of dogs
finds shelter-
an abandoned house

__________

Nikolay Grankin

:

spring again
i select the key
to an old lock

:

meadow…
above a couple in love
the butterflies

:

abandoned farm
a gate is opened and closed
by the wind

:

emergency room
the scent of blooming lilacs remains
behind the door

:

drizzle
in an old pond
tadpoles

:

so much noise!
in an old apple tree
lovesparrows

__________

Carl Chartier

:

There is only this day
There is only this hour
There is only this minute
There is only this second
There is only this moment

__________

Lucia Cardillo

:

broken lamp-posts…
the sleepless night moves
in the obscurity

lampioni rotti … nell’oscurità si muove  /la notte insonne

:

old madhouse …
leaves fall
on the wind sighs

vecchio manicomio …le foglie cadono /sui sospiri del vento

:

in the air
lightly a wish …
fluff of dandelions

fluttua nell’aria / leggero un desiderio … dente di leone 

:

rainbow…
a stray dog shakes away
the summer rain

arcobaleno … un cane scrolla via / pioggia d’estate

:

collected rain
in the road holes …
mirrored clouds

pioggia raccolta / nelle buche della strada… specchi di nuvole

:

promises…
already blooming in red
the pomegranate

promesse … già fiorito di rosso / il melograno

__________

Ray Caligiuri

:

sunshowers
color the sky
golden harvest

:

stars shoot
over malibu beach
crime scene

:

loud ducks
file down the street
don’t cross them

:

kennel runs
two greyhounds
and a flashy poodle

:

enlightened
awoke to find
the world lost

:

serenity now!
buddha laughs

__________

Radostina Dragostinova

:

summer
a morsel rainy afternoon
among the beggar’s coins

:

schizophrenia
my perfectly arranged world
where
you
are gone

:

A habit

She
is reading poetry regularly.
It is the only way
she can meet every day
love

:

sunny morn
her red dress
reflecting in the window

:

open window theory
grandma explains
her marriage

:

incessant  storm
scattered away
Vivaldi’s “Summer” sheets

________

Robert Okaji

:

Thunder

The low rumble says “look out, I’m coming,” but never specifies what to anticipate. Lightning strikes? Floods? High winds? Sometimes even the rain neglects us. Our pup hides under a blanket in her crate, and I contemplate a run to the store for beer and wine. Three years ago tornados were spotted in this area; they never touched our hills. The storm’s downdrafts bring us the fragrance of ozone. I marvel that three oxygen atoms combined in the atmosphere to produce such delight. How I remember inhaling deep draughts of summer storms in my childhood’s last years, watching thunderheads roll overhead, dreaming of victories and love and certainty, not yet knowing that desires change, that the unexpected always seizes its turn.

Under this roof
we smile at the clouds
our kettle whistling

:

Pain

Pain reminds me that I’m breathing, still able to appreciate the fragrance of French roast coffee brewing, the diced red pepper, onion and jalapeño mixture sizzling in the pan. Today is a good day. When I roll out the dough for the onion tart, the leg barely protests, and as I sip ginger tea while the tart bakes, no throb interrupts my pleasure.

Sometimes the hip shocks me with its barbed lance attack, or the knee rasps “not today, sonny,” and I grimace, concentrate on deliberate forward movement, one short step followed by another, into the kitchen or down the steps to the shack.

Music soothes, as does poetry, but occasionally the weight of the guitar is more than the leg can bear. Still, when I manage to lose myself in a tune or a few phrases, I drift in their currents, weightless, free.

Oh, to climb that hill
among those lost maples
Look — my shoe’s untied

:

Waiting for the Shakuhachi, I Practice with What I Have

The tone feels round on shorter bottles,
which more closely resemble my shape.
Longnecks pitch lower, while the emptied
pinot requires more controlled air flow.
My grooved fingers fumble in their
search for meaning. I know this silence,
but that one requires more study.

Cool air stumbles in
through the trees.
Ah, autumn’s return.

__________

Mani Shanmugam

:

a begging bowl
full of holes
with me, with spider

__________

Marta Chocilowska

:

a lonely walk
searching for yesterday’s scent
of wild violets

:

sultry forest
the creak of my bicycle
breaks the silence

:

sweltering heat
a smoke over the landfill
maintains vertical

:

a letter from son
in a censored envelope
dandelion seeds

:

a sunbeam
pursuing the butterfly
shiny fur

:

path among lilacs –
two wheelchairs
side by side

_________

Lori Ann Minor

:

never finding
the gray area
borderline personality

:

all my thoughts spinning spiderwebs

:

stuck on the bottom
of the seesaw
bipolar depression

:

withered vines
on the empty house
endometriosis

:

dissociation
losing myself
in fun house mirrors

:

welcome mat
wiping their feet
all over me

_________

Bill Waters

 __________

There is no News section this time – it will return with the next Showcase.

The next Showcase at the zen space will be Autumn 2018 which will be released, subject to karma, on 1st October 2018.

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.