Three Asian Poems
Gwaneum-Sa Temple at the base of Hallasan
Three Asian Poems
Mists of Halla San*
Up through creaking oaks
whose acorns once fed
ancient Korean kings
during very hungry times,
we emerge along dark and
spiny ridges leading up
toward a massive volcanic
dome looming in the mists
above the East China Sea.
Treeline shrubs clink
with icy crystals, and
gnarled pines bend in
snow like those of Korean
scroll paintings hanging
on warm museum walls
six thousand feet below.
And frozen mist spreads
to obscure almost everything
to heighten our awareness
of this Asian wilderness.
*This poem originally appeared in Appalachia
On Viewing Hiroshige's
Wood Block Prints
Japanese magic
when I glance
at a Hiroshige print--
Sails at sea,
twisted pines on shore,
gleaming Fuji in the distance--
I can hear those locusts buzz
in the heat of an eternal summer afternoon.
I can hear the hoarse notes of the mourning dove
far below snowy Mount Fuji,
Fuji San, the origin--
I breathe the scent of tatami mats,
I feel the hot burning waters of the ofuro,
I taste the fish and smell the cooking
from the underground court of restaurants
beneath the streets of Osaka.
It may be the plucked strings of an okoto
or the delicate note of a flute
on the Noh stage that evokes the magic--
Hiroshige's wood block prints.
Power of the Shogun*
As though the shogun's
power could reach out
through the centuries to
seize me, ancient gnarled
wooden planks of Ni jo jo
creak and squeak underfoot
like nightingales in pines
of a Japan of olden times.
*This poem original appeared in Poetry Nippon
Readers may be interested in seeing my other hub Three More Asian Poems.
© 2010 Richard Francis Fleck