March 10, 2010 - Painting With Koi

Re-Write of In Spring in Yoshina

Springtime in Yoshino

 

In Yoshino spring taught us how to still our hearts

To the flow of cherry trees painting mountains,

Each day a wonder.

We climbed to see blossoms,

our eyes moved by beauty.

Each day awakening to ripples of children’s laughter,

their songs of universal joy,

their feet moving to the rhythms of

happiness and school uniforms,

crisp in whites and blues.

 

Tea in Yoshino, beside koi ponds

like strokes of some painter’s hand.

Charcoal and orange koi brushing

effortlessly, soundlessly against one another

like our bodies, as one.

Our lives a precious tea ceremony

Under cherry painted mountains,

In springtime in Yoshino

Our hearts were still.

 

By Michael Campbell and Ma-Li Calder

For Mikesjournal#10 - We Met The First Time Like This