The Shyness of Beauty

to listen,
fine not to listen, fine too…
nightingale
                                                                        singing out of the darkness
­                                                                        the shyness of her beauty
a dandelion
now and then interrupting
the butterfly’s dream
­                                                                        with the changing of seasons
­                                                                        its golden clock turns silver
parents older than I
are now my children
the same cicadas
­                                                                        echoes of happy voices
­                                                                        reminding me of childhood
sound of things
dropping from the tree–
autumn wind
­                                                                        invisible harvester
­                                                                        sneaking between the branches
a single spider’s thread
ties the duckweed
to the shore
­                                                                        only a whispering breeze
­                                                                        can untangle the slipknot
morning glory!
the well bucket-entangled,
I ask for water
­                                                                        I’m offered purple trumpets
­                                                                        filled with the sweetness of dew

Chiyo-Ni                                                         Kim M. Russell, 2^nd October 2018

My response to Carpe Diem #1512 Chiyo-Ni … THE female haiku master (Renga With …)

In the third regular episode of Carpe Diem’s anniversary month, we have arrived at the letter C for Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775) the female haiku master who followed in the footsteps of Basho and the writer of the famous haiku about the Morning Glory.

In the course of a biographical background of our poet, we have been given six haiku written by her and the challenge is to create a renga (a minimum of six and a maximum of 12 stanzas) together with Chiyo-Ni by adding two-line stanzas of approximately 14 syllables. We may choose our own sequence.