VISITING JANINE ~

 

The other day we went down to the Catskills to take care of Janine Pommy Vega’s grave site. Ten years ago already we chose the red Vermont granite for her stone, and I asked that “Poet” be all there was on the stone other than her name and date. She looks awful alone there, friends.  Susan noticed that, a woman to woman eye thing. I then took Susan to Philip Guston’s grave, Musa beside him. Now the PC crowd have canceled his very large and important exhibit of art work spanning a life time because it will include his dizzy Klansmen. Wait until 2024 the artsy legislatures command. To see one of those paintings, and I have in backwater Hanover, NH, is something to behold. In the cemetery all is equal so very early in the morning in the rain.

[ BA ]

Grasshopper, good singer!

Take care of my tomb

when I die

Janine loved this poem by Issa

translated by Nanao Sakaki

_______________________

UPDATE: GUSTON

photographs: bob arnold 

THE POCKET HAIKU ~

After a long nap,

the cat yawns, rises, and goes out

looking for love







Give me a homeland,

and a passionate woman,

and winter alone







Brilliant moon,

is it true that you too

must pass in a hurry







Thus spring begins: old

stupidities repeated,

new errs invented





I   S   S   A







In pale moonlight

the wisteria's scent

comes from far away







Light winter rain

like scampering rat's-feet

over my koto







In a bitter wind

a solitary monk bends

to words cut in stone







Moon in midsky, high

over the village hovels

and wandering on




B   U   S   O   N







But for a woodpecker

tapping at a post, no sound

at all in the house







I'm a wanderer

so let that be my name —

the first winter rain







Winter showers,

even the monkey searches

for a raincoat







The morning glories

bloom, securing the gate

in the old fence



B   A   S   H   O






____________________


the pocket haiku
translated by Sam Hamill
Shambhala 2014

Bob Arnold: Forever

Issa's Untidy Hut

The Poetry Blog for Lilliput Review

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Bob Arnold: Forever

Cover of Bob Arnold's Forever

Two little beauties from Bob Arnold's new tiny little booklet, Forever. The handmade paper cover, delightful photos, illustrations and fine poems comprise a production any small press maven might envy (and collector might covet). I don't see it mounted up on the Longhouse website yet, so if you are interested, drop Bob a line at , substituting @ for at, and . for dot.

The First Step To Independence

Breaking worse
what you try
to fix

Tobacco Road

what a corny
film

and how
I can't

forget the
old fella's

sadness

Bob Arnold









my eternal youth ornament--
just three cents
of emperor's pine

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/



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