A heron and the half moon

To get to the rock
that's sprouted a tree
I'm led by a heron
who's perched on a rock

Corner View--Beppu and a p.s. from Oita

I love Beppu, the city next to ours, a short bus ride away.
Beppu is famous for it's hot springs. In addition to that, to me it is a city that is very human-ly proportioned. Just the right scale.
There are beaches in the city, oceans by the roads, mountains in the distance, and buildings that house the things we need without reaching taller than need be.
We joke that this is the Tokyo tower, but in fact, it's the Beppu tower--
watching that the rest of the town keeps in scale.
While giving us a view of the sea.

A friend told me the other day she'd heard there's even an on-sen (hot-spring bath) in the tower.
If anyone knows if that's true...
please let me know.
Meanwhile, I'm posting a p.s. below from Oita and then I'm off to enjoy the views from your cities.
For those new to corner view, click on to Jane in Spain under 'blogs to visit' at the right for the links to the views....

Happy Wednesday!

P.S. to Corner View--a poem and stamps from Oita

I stand
looking out over the city
holding stamps--
fans and cranes flying
80 cents a piece.
Free to paste them on a postcard or fold them in a poem.
Advertently alliterating
to show you one way
or another
where it is
I live

This weekend I heard a beautiful performance of Taiko, by a woman performer.
It was so powerful and felt like the energy of the universe was in her playing. This thought entered my mind when the piece was played: "I can no longer be afraid
of thunder."

I wanted to post a picture of a taiko, and found these,
from a summer festival several years ago where our Japan family lives.
Isn't it a wonderful drum?!

Joanne Gover Yoshida, Aikawarazu Life in Japan

dear Tziv,

It works!
Your dream machine works.
One dream at a time.
I will post mine here or on your site later,
after you all have a chance
to dream.

if one day

If one day,
happiness wells up inside you
it doesn't matter where you are,
everything will seem bathed
in light
like in the story about the woodcutter.
Before he was enlightened
he was surrounded by piles of
wood and after he was
enlightened he was
surrounded by the same
piles of wood.

Invitation to Dream

Date: October 23, 2009 (main event)

May 23, 2009 and the 23rd of each month from now to October ('practices')

Time: When-ever it is that you sleep

Place: Where-ever it is that you sleep

RSVP: This invitation is in conjunction with 350 Dreamers, to share healing dreams for the planet.
There are still many dreaming spots available, and the best part is its something you can do in your sleep.

For more information and to sign in, please click on the link to "350 Dreamers" in the "blogs to visit" list on the right.
It happens to be sponsored by my sister, master dreamer and writer, Tzivia. You'll find tips there for remembering dreams, and how to get started for the first practice, which is tomorrow. Tzivia has been writing her dreams into poems at "All the snooze that's fit to print". The link is also at the right.

Hope you can make it！

Healing Dreams and days to all ,
♡

P.S. to the coffee post

With all this talk of coffee, I couldn't sleep last night. I kept getting up, turning on the light.
Writing a few lines.
Back into my futon, where I sleep on the floor, books scattered 'round on the tatami straw.

(I forgot to mention, I can't drink coffee at night, it keeps me awake
but didn't realize just reading about it would have
this effect!)

Happy Thursday around the world
♡

Corner View--Coffee, tea, or....?!

1. did you ever have one of those days when life was just one big coffee break

2. after all, it's the contemplation that the coffee brings;
an empty center that collects my thoughts

3. today the things that happened unexpectedly:
instead of coffee, I had tea.

and, here's some ways to use coffee vocabular-y,
In Japanese, written by the way they are pronounced...
coffee = コーヒ (pronounced ko-hee),
milk = mi-ru-ku
sugar = sa-to, or shu-ga when asked for casually with coffee

esspresso = e-su-pu-re-so
cappuchino = ka-pu-chi-no

coffee shop = ki-sa-ten

There's also 'American coffee' (a-me-ri-kan ko-hee) vs. the stronger 'blend coffee' (bu-ren-do ko-hee)
How do you like yours?

Surely some wonderful brews are waiting aroung the world.
Click on Jane in Spain on the right (blogs to visit) to enjoy a cup, to follow the links, and to find out more about the Corner Project.

Happy Wednesday!

for the sake of poems

Surely I'd become a bore
if I were to write you lines
galore, a poem for every time
we met, for every precious moment
that we set our eyes upon.

And yet with you all things are
infact sublime and it's for thus
I wish to put it all
in rhyme.

So bear with me as I indulge
in scribbling in this notebook, only
every-so-often I will tear out one page
to give
to you.

Sky blue sheet beneath
a sky blue sky
Hanging in the sun to
dry

pink trim

I close my eyes and go into some place
that would have been my childhood,
had my childhood been
like this--

picket fences and
a warm breeze wafting
through my self,
this touch of straw on my feet and
no need for shoes

ice cream cones
and scalloped trim
You near by
Yes, you
near me
That's where my childhood
begins

Corner View--The great outdoors

What is it for you? The beach or a lake? Mountain green or ocean blue?

When I was little I must have been told that if I dig far enough, I'll reach China.
I started telling that to my daughter when we were at the beach the other day, as she was digging.
And then I realized that from the beach where we are, China is no longer on the other side of the world.

We laughed and decided if she digs far enough she'll reach America.

Where will you reach if you dig from your corner?


*posted in participation with Corner View Wednesday.
Please click on the right under blogs to visit to "Jane in Spain" to visit inspiring corners all around the world.
Happy Wednesday!!

The story of a 'J'

Oh what a day
It was work, it was play
I sat and I watched
as he made me
a 'J'

note to myself:
A poem is a feeling in a moment.
The 'truth' in it need not linger once it has
been brushed.

*inspired by reading this poem by the zen poet Ryokan:

a poem by Ryokan

What is this life of mine?
Rambling on, I entrust myself to fate.
Sometimes laughter, sometimes tears.
Neither a layman nor a monk.
An early spring rain drizzles on and on.
But the plum blossoms have yet to brighten things up.
All morning I sit by the hearth,
No one to talk to.
I search for my copybook
And then brush a few poems.

Corner View--Shopping Wednesday

We mix 'n match,
what's right for me?

Luckily, the fun
is free

'cept for a pen and a note book,
a shopping spree that's just
to look

The currency?
It's joie de vie!


(we can live on dreams, right?
right!

Did yours come true?
We're on our way to shop with you)

*The corner project is sponsored by Jane at Spain Daily. This weeks theme is shopping. Please drop by to her site for the links to 'shop' around the world (click on "Jane in Spain" on the "blogs to visit" list at right)
Should be lots of wonderful color and surprises. Hope you find what you're looking for
♡

Aikawarazu Bookshelf Note

Otherwise,
by Sarah Haliwell

Sarah has made available in print a beautiful collection of poems called "Otherwise".
You can visit the link on the right (`blogs to visit`to `otherwise`) to find out more about the book and to visit Sarah's poetry blog
http://knittingthewind-otherwise.blogspot.com/
I hope it will open up and/or re-new your belief in the connection between life and poems as it is doing for me.

P.S. to SH
as you can see from the post below I am still working (slowly) on the translation of the book about the Gods to send you!

Translating for Sarah, at Steven`s Pizza

I`m reading about the creation
of the heavens and the earth
in a pizza shop run by my friend Steve.
His frisbee team is here
speaking
Japanese
eating pizza at a table made of desks
as I sit at a desk which
I`m using as a table
translating a story
of the gods
for Sarah.

(insert picture from the bus)

Don't you love
the buses
Dim hums
and stops
announced
intermittently
while cars
pass
unrelentingly
negating the
silence
by opening
space

I saw the bay through a bird
and the sky through an eye
overlapping blues and
cutouts making frames
a heron straight through one
and one flying
from the pier
I knew that I was free
when the sea then flowed
through me

today lets make a prayer for all
the things that do go right--
for the wind that's blowing through the trees,
for the day that turns
to night

sweet dreams