Poetic Subjects

This Pillow Book entry is inspired by The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, translated and edited by Ivan Morris. Sei Shōnagon was a courtesan in 10th century Japan who kept a diary of the goings-on at court and concealed it in her wooden pillow. She made lists under various categories of specific, often quirky things.








From The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon
     The capital city. Arrowroot. Water-bur. Colts. Bamboo grass. The
     round-leaved violet. Club moss. Flat river-boats. Teh mandarin duck.
     The scattered chigaya reed. Lawns. The green vine. The pear tree. The
     althea.

Poetic Subjects

A wisp of clouds, unrequited love, a feeling one is afraid to lose, an early bloom surprises one on a morning walk, a passionate embrace, snow-covered fields, a home that once may have been warm and inviting but now crumbles under the weight of decay, a thing that is rustic and old, facing one's fears, I once had a dream and before I did not recognize the fear that lay just below my skin, gnawing at my soul, preventing me from soaring.

The Pink Evening Sky

A warm sun whispers

to your heart. Lie

down on the lingering

wind. Clutch sleep

in a dream. Your bed

is the pink evening sky.

Holding

His touch haunts

me. Between desire

and adore, a clutch

or an ache, in the embrace

of night, the lingering

caress of trusting souls.

Exchange

Escape the lusty 

Candle of day under 

her mate, the drunken 

moon. The dropping 

of hearts in wild 

darkness. The telling

of dreamy hunger, 

in sacred fire 

burning, flickers, 

as morning devours 

her night.