Carp,
guardian gods
of this temple pond.
Do you mind the racket
these rowdy invaders make?
Only when
they forget to feed you
from the fish-cracker box.
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Month: November 2014
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Face like the ancient poets,
who you had absorbed
deep into your own fibre,
and knew Li Po by heart.
But those eyes,
sadder than any romantic’s,
I wonder if, in the end,
your golden pavilion
brought you the
beauty you craved?
(Statue in Tojiin temple, Kyoto)
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Morning Encounter
Youth in the face
of an old woman
sitting outside Shukakuen.
How did she finally bloom
after eighty years?
Her smile and sweet “ohayo”
I’ll carry with me into the afternoon.
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Hermit’s Hut (Shisendo)
Late morning sun
strokes the azalea garden
and a thousand tiny insects
floating above
like so many flecks
of living light.
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Higashiyama (Entokuin Temple)
Sunlight plays in the moss garden,
summer’s last afternoon.
Enjoy them,
these easy pleasures
of a passing life,
thunder in the
Higashiyama mountains.
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Bamboo Spout (Sesshuji)
Water flowing
from the bamboo spout
into the cool stone urn,
dripping, tolling
the deepest part of the day.
A soft wind
stirs from the moss.
Where will it lead me,
this afternoon full of cloud
and journeys?
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Morning Prayer
Somewhere out of
the cicada’s fierce rattle,
the low swell
of the monks’ morning prayers,
deep tone,
the colour of the
ancient temple eaves.
Copyright, Ricky Barrow 2014
Kinkakuji
Walking the long lane to Kinkakuji,
under the maple trees
just turning to Autumn, and you,
sometimes latched to me,
sometimes far off ahead
looking for your Japan.
Under the golden pavilion
we cracked jokes at all the people,
the babble of tongues,
the automatic hands raising cameras,
the click of smiles.
But perhaps we were too harsh
looking down at that crowd’s
unreflecting joy in this bustle of life
brought together under the gaudy relic.
For I saw you in a moment
gazing at it, eyes and lips open,
receiving, childlike wonder,
and the way you were beautiful
in its dazzling mirror.
Copyright Ricky Barrow 2014
Ricky1871Poetry 