Ancient Temple At Close Of Day

 

—Tan-Renga by
Andrew Brindle, Taiwan (plain text)
and Christina Chin, Malaysia (italics)

first frog songs
from the old temple pond
spring dawn
chickens scratch
for worms

* * *


a washed-up tree trunk
memories linger
of songbirds
a squirrel skitters
round the fence


* * *


raindrops and blossom
in a hillside woods
falling together
a hat umbrella bobbing
in the hedges 

 

 

 

the slow silent steps
of an egret passing by
summer stillness
shallow stream
a fish swims near


* * *

faded red lanterns
from a dusty temple’s eaves
when the luck runs out
punters put joss
and pullout numbers

* * *

between dry rocks
fragile life still flourishes
knowing what’s needed
hole on the earth
the grunt of catfish.


* * *

beyond horizons
the last light reaches out
a time to let go
candles flicker
on the dinner table

___________________

Today’s LittleNip:

Luck is not chance, it’s toil;
fortune’s expensive smile is earned.

—Emily Dickinson

___________________

Andrew Brindle has appeared several times in collaborations in the Kitchen. He is from the UK and has lived in Taiwan for more than 30 years. He has a Ph.D. in Linguistics focusing on discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. These days he finds himself on the northern coast of the island where he teaches, grows vegetables in the hills and writes haiku inspired by the ocean and mountains that surround him.

Christina Chin has been very instrumental in brining poets in collaborations to the Kitchen, and we thank her for that! A painter and haiku poet from Malaysia, Christina is a four-time recipient of top 100 in the MDAC Summit Contests; exhibited at the Palo Alto Art Center, California; 1st prize winner of the 34th Annual Cherry Blossom Sakura Festival 2020 Haiku Contest; and 1st prize winner in the 8th Setouchi Matsuyama 2019 Photohaiku Contest. She has been published in numerous journals, multilingual journals, and anthologies, including Japan's prestigious monthly Haikukai Magazine.

Again, thanks for today’s fine poetry to these two poets-across-the-sea.

__________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reminder that
Sacramento Poetry Alliance presents
Annie Finch and Autumn Newman
in Sacramento today, 1pm;
Sacramento Poetry Center features
The Soft-Offs at 2pm;
Poetry of the Sierra Foothills presents
Shawn Pittard and Gene Berson
in Camino today, 2pm; and
Poets Club of Lincoln features
Bob Stanley and open mic
today, 3pm.
For info about these and other
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
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—or get changed!—
 during the week.

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