Alleviating Suffering

summer’s morning:

a child of the poor

drags a head of cabbage

Ippekiro Nakatsuka

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Take in

Give out

Breath after breath after breath

Clear

Clear and open

Or as open as is possible

With the blossom

Less of a food

Than well-fried cabbage

With potatoes and butter

From a child of the poor

To a teenager of the sixties

And now, sixty plus a few years

In the twenty-first century

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Civilisation versus Nature

summer grasses—

the wheels of a locomotive

come up to a stop

Seishi Yamaguchi

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I weed the old gravel

I weed between the new paving stones

I weed, and I know that I will have to weed again

Yet the memory may be the first memory

It is of being with Grandad

On the clay works steam-powered shunting engine

We ride together, from the arched bridge

By our row of terraced cottages

To the buffers, of Hepworth Iron Company Ltd

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Words and Dialogue

he says a word

I say a word:

autumn deepens

Kyoshi Takahama

————————————————

I grow

Am growing older

Than the seasons

Which do deepen

I choose words

More quickly

As if fearful

No, no I won’t say it

For still I do believe

That some summers

Are yet before me 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Kindness

morning glories—

the well-bucket entangled

I ask for water

Chiyo-Ni

————————————————

Given gifts

Crossing seas

Island landings

Ice-cream cornets

On the first day of May

Dancing

Around the maypole

While

Climbing aboard

The horse-drawn carriage

Laid out, spread-eagle

In the meadow

Taking steps tomorrow

To the beach

I thank the seas

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan

Roots

lily:

out of the water…

out of itself

Nicholas Virgilio

————————————————

Out of the steadiness

Or ready acceptance

Onto the waves

Of a vibrant sea

Take me to the heavens

Take me to the sky

Take me to the discoveries

Of more about me 

haiku mind

108 poems to

cultivate awareness 

& open your heart

is by Patricia Donegan