Vulnerability

moonlight—

through thin clothes

to naked skin

Hisajo Sugita

————————————————

Is my male body

More appealing

Or more vulnerable

When one can see its nakedness

Through a thin veil

Of linen or mercerised cotton

Is my male mind

More alluring

Or approachable

When seen in its pure emptiness

With a cover

Of no substance whatsoever

Is my male skin

Then so inviting

As your unveiled female skin

Are we not equals

More or less

In our obvious powerlessness

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Cutting Through

splitting

the stone of a white peach

with the edge of a knife

Takako Hashimoto

————————————————

I don’t have the skill

Or the speed

Or the presence of mind

Or the heart

Or the wherewithal

Or the desire

Or the need

If I soak it

In a tumbler of water

Will it grow again

Or does it need

To be opened

By the swift stroke

Of the sword brandishing

Samurai’s daughter

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Transcendent Mystery

drawing light

from another world—

the Milky Way

Yatsuka Ishihara

————————————————

What cannot be said

Cannot be heard

So say it

And hear it

And explore it

Yes, find it

Yet know

That there is no higher

Nor more subliminal force of creation

We are wholly what true science

Has the way to show us

We can always find explanation

If only for half of the way there

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

No More Hiroshimas

  a sparrows nest

perhaps

inside the A-bomb dome

Kinichi Sawaki

————————————————

I stall

I don’t know how to respond

For the first time

I don’t have words of reaction

Of course the image of new life

Is always joyful, welcome

Wherever it occurs

Yet did it not close my eyes

To the atrocities

Do I still need to go there

Is that how we achieve our peace

By keeping open the soul

By keeping picking at our old wounds

I don’t know the answers

Nor even

Where these words ought to go

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Sacred Food Chain

Ever lingering

in the taste of the walnut:

deep autumn.

James W. Hackett

————————————————

And so to impermanence

Which the farmer

Naturally understands

For he works

From season to season

From sowing to reaping

To all of those harvests in between:

Harvest of sun

Harvest of moon

Harvest of rain

Harvest of drought

Harvest of day

Harvest of night

Harvest of dark

Harvest of light 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan