[Image: “This is an old fishing device,” by Aurelio Asiaian on Flickr. (Used under a Creative Commons license.) The photographer says: “The name is ajirogi, a kind of wicker netting for fishing. I found the word in this old poem: Asaborake/ uji no kawa giri/ tae dae ni /araware wataru/ seze no ajirogi; in a bad translation: When a day is breaking,/Mist hanging over the Uji River/Is clearing off./Begin to appear one by one/From close ones to the ones in the distance./Stakes to support fences to catch fish.]
From whiskey river:
May
The backyard apple tree gets sad so soon,
takes on a used-up, feather-duster look
within a week.The ivy’s spring reconnaissance campaign
sends red feelers out and up and down
to find the sun.Ivy from last summer clogs the pool,
brewing a loamy, wormy, tea-leaf mulch
soft to the touchand rank with interface of rut and rot.
The month after the month they say is cruel
is and is not.
(Jonathan Galassi [source])
…and:
Today
Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
(Mary Oliver [source])
…and:
Today
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breezethat it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the houseand unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peoniesseemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like takinga hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottageso they could walk out,
holding hands and squintinginto this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
(Billy Collins [source])
