Dans le doux silence de l’air / In the sweet silence of air

 

Dans le doux silence de l’air

17-18 février 2015

Newmoon1

La nuit s’étendait

Manteau de pluie noire couvrant

Le voyageur las

L’esprit lacéré d’attente

Accumule noires stries sifflantes

 

Le rossignol chante

Sa chanson forte d’habitudes

Résonne comme un glas

Un cœur en hiver s’élance

Saupoudré de glace qui fond

 

Parfum de jasmin

Répandu en nuit l’embaume

De murmures secrets

Ce chuchotement insistant

Hante mes pensées de blancheur

 

L’œil miroite en ciel

Pâle semblant de lune nouvelle

Qui vaillante se dresse

Ainsi l’âme suit retraçant

La route des anges trépassés

 

Le coq chante déjà

Le réveil d’une race humaine

Sous vide suspendue

Dans le doux silence de l’air

Les rêves exhalent un soupir

 

 

In the sweet silence of air

17- 18 February 2015

Newmoon2

The night stretching out

Black coat of rain covering

Weary traveller

Wait lacerated spirit

Gathers on whistling black streaks

 

The Nightingale sings

Its strong song of all habits

Sounds like a death knell

A heart in winter rises

Sprinkled with ice that’s melting

 

The scent of jasmine

Widespread in night embalms it

With secret murmurs

That insisting whispering

Haunts my thoughts with its whiteness

 

Eye shimmers in sky

Pale semblance of a new moon

That valiant stands

Thus soul follows retracing

The path of the dead angels

 

Cock already crows

Wakening of human race

Under vacuum held

In the sweet silence of air

Dreams are exhaling a sigh

 

 

 

Note: Ecrite d’abord comme une série de tankas en français (un essai puisque j’écris d’habitude les tankas en anglais), je l’ai ensuite traduite en une série de tankas en anglais. Written first in french as a series of tanka (a trial as I usually write tankas in English), I then translated it into English as a series of tanka as well

 

 

Tomorrow no more

Tomorrow no more

13 February 2015

  ashes4

 Silent voices called

The trees that relayed to leaves

Distant summer breeze

The sun shone on his dead skin

That sparkled in summer’s heat

 

A peacock spread out

Eyes alit with promises

Of awakenings

Tightly shut lids woke no more

To colours smeared across skies

 

The earth exhaled sighs

As waters bubbled in seas

That stretched vivid blue

Velvet languidly silent

Gushed forth with bubbles no more

 

Pale blue skies turned grey

Listless grass swayed to strong winds

Like wings of pixies

Fairy tales moaned of parting

As the mind like banshee wailed

 

Withered brown leaves writhed

Under winter’s sun that glared

Talked no more of warmth

Neither warmth nor melody

Reached the still mind in winter

 

Shadows changed their course

The river flowed now upstream

Undoing prayers

Spell-cast in its deep waters

That lovers took as refuge

 

Silver fish shimmered

Slithering among the blue

Tails blazing with light

Of mystic scales that split gills

Whispering waters spoke low

 

Earth cracked in blisters

For the pain of leaving you

As the birds too cried

I, chest heaving with goodbyes

Washed my face in your ashes

 

ashes

 

 

 

 

Timeless

Timeless

5-6 February 2015

  IMG_7135  IMG_7032 IMG_6503

 Earthen pots scattered

A myriad of clay vessels

Holding none but air

Like waves through lungs that seek not

Hope in thin air travelled frail

 

Colours everywhere

Spilling their thoughtless pleasure

Tickled eyes’ senses

Inner feelings slightly touched

Missed a tidal wave of heat

 

A banyan tree stood

Its prop roots waved to the wind

That caressed its gait

Waist uncovered I walked on

Never bearing roots to wave

 

Birds flocked to their nests

Their shrill piping welcomed trees

That spread out in warmth

A scent of a warmth in mind

Met with chilly happenings

 

Sun set in pale creek

While mountains blazed in glory

Echoing skies’ fire

Fire that had burnt anew

Simmered under mind’s cool ice

 

Yellow gator crawled

Thirsting for sea in low tide

As pale lights flickered

Early shades strong had shimmered

Till mind’s tide from them withdrew

 

Darkness crept on creek

But light actioned its yellow

Eerily sparkling

Strangeness perfused all in heart

That no artefact could warm

 

False green meadows stretched

On lily white steps that shone

Artificial blend

Welding would not heal a heart

Which fragments timeless shattered

 

IMG_7262 IMG_7283

 

 

Requiem in steel

Requiem in steel

27-28 January 2015

 IMG_5803 (2)

 

Sun glints on fire blades

Alit roads of metal speak

Of cuttings of light

The scissors took to my mind

And carved away silent paths

 

A window now shone

With sparkle of steely might

Extending below

A steely will stretched ahead

Breaching old oaths of softness

 

Sun suddenly fled

Leaving panes engulfed in dark

With shadows of light

Half-truths like half-light stood stark

On a backdrop of intent

 

A shimmering pane

Welcomed eyes that sparkled back

In the dying light

Remnants of memories lurched

Towards forgotten future

 

Darkness fell silent

On surfaces of sleek sheet

That bore no traces

In heart that loses itself

A steel-clad requiem plays

 

IMG_5803 (3)

 

 

Dances in blue

Dances in blue

26 January 2015

 IMG_5782

 

Sun gathers yellow

A basket of warm glory

That sits in ice blue

For a heart between two minds

Fire sets in icicles

 

Camel bone spread white

Flaunted an absence of hide

Tall semblance of life

A mind stripped of fleshy thoughts

Gathers blues of survival

 

A breeze scattered forth

Ashen remains in pale pot

From embers that died

Extinguishing the choices

Heart a chamber painted grey

 

Earthen clay surrounds

A whistling flow of rank air

That reached out to lungs

A well of secret whispers

Threw hope’s rope up the ladder

 

Pink row after row

Cobbled stones were never match

To bricks interlocked

Minds that locked in communion

Bore of smooth no resemblance

 

The creek stretched in sight

A mirror of prancing blue

With castles above

Sands in time cast long shadows

Of memories of tall tales

 

Dark and light played on

Alternating slight figures

Like flickering flames

A thought persistent shimmered

Azure flows washed me anew

 

Blue water falling

On my head in the shower

Like droplets of ink

The skies write in hearts that sink

Stories of lifeboats that dance

 

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A Sense of Wonder

A Sense of Wonder

23 January 2015

 wonder9

 

Stars above burned bright

Exhaling scent of jasmine

The night sighed softly

Night’s cool stilled my wilderness

As I breathed in what she breathed

 

The nightingale sang

To a tune etched between times

The morrow embraced today

As dawn crept into my mind

That ceased its wandering quest

 

Pale shadows would stretch

Spirits dancing in the wind

To flames unbeknownst

The mind flickering responds

As it twists and turns in tides

 

A crow grazed like cows

Its beak a semblance of thorn

Lost are now its roots

Black in my mind left ajar

Left coal’s streaks among roses

 

Birds awoke to light

That stirred in their nest aflame

From sun’s beckoning

A lone memory called not

A heart that set its course right

 

The cock crowed no more

Its voice now silent on land

That stretched in stillness

A lake within flowed silent

Its surface clear of intent

 

Petunia now bloomed

Reaching out to sun’s kisses

As sunflower leapt

A leap of faith overcame

The longest bridges of mind

 

A tear fell silent

For the beauty of all

That unravelled grace

Softly spoken promises

That behold my eye in awe

 

wonder2        wonder10

 

 

 

Death of a leaf?

Death of a leaf?

22 January 2015

 Leaf5

The leaf flew in wind

Hungrily eating the sun

That beamed on all Earth

A ray from far beyond time

Came to mind’s eye in secret

 

Green and translucent

Veins like needlework playing

Patterns of light food

Images flashing, shining

In inner soul’s retina

 

Like brilliant green flag

The leaf ate, shone and flew high

While the days walked by

Nights and days passed in tremor

Of whispering points of time

 

Pernicious yellow

Coloured late spring the green leaf

That slowly hung head

With end times now beginning

Even crowns bowed to common

 

Onward went bowing

With weight of days that followed

A red leaf once green

Memories too would ripen

Slow like a fruit without root

 

Bright red as ember

To onward journey it fell

A brown leaf turned grey

As greying head stored no more

Of yonder tales of wonder

 

Falling leaf cried out

Its anguish covered by wind

That shook the mighty

Frail body sees its own frame

With sad thoughts of oblivion

 

As leaf fell to ground

It saw its roots, its bark high

A glorious sight

Glory be with your whole self

As you see the tree now shine

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JzYr1T-OoQ

After the rains

After the rains

19 January 2015

afterrains12

White flags soared in sky

Flapping in winds that tore through

Night’s inky shadow

Thoughts seeping like creeper’s shade

Dug channel through oblivion

 

The moon turned wane face

Its soft gaze blazing anew

The sparkling still lakes

Like diamonds cutting through panes

Memories shone through the grey

 

The wind ripped through hills

That stood in face of Tempest

Like pillars of clay

Mudslide swept through all corners

Leaving no memory sane

 

Broken umbrella

Lay writhing from eye of storm

Jagged shards flaunted

Like pieces of glass in soul

Slick words thrown like knives are etched

 

Morning woke in eyes

Sounds of soothing daybreak rose

A pitter-patter

Like birds feet on a wet ledge

As remains played loud in chest

 

Glorious sunrise

Shaking off remnants of storm

Warmed Earth’s sleepy crust

Early day’s soft soothing moods

Enchanted all living souls

 

A bird chanted flights

As it stretched its wings to dry

To soar it prepared

In year’s anticipation

Shaking off rain I called out

 

Bring to me the light

And dispel all doubts’ darkness

As sun beams on sky

Winter rains that flooded Earth

Would pierce in mind a new seed

 

 

 

 

Insanity

Insanity

18 January 2015

Galaxies

 

The bee tasted wine

And gone was scent of honey

As it fled flowers

Bitter thoughts invaded them

As I watched their conversion

 

Dewdrops rolled tearless

On stems of flowers drooping

From lack of pollen

Minds captivated by fear

Will nourish not any frame

 

The woodpecker hopped

On ground hardened by the sun

Rain had come fruitless

On went the beak lost in thought

All was wood for each fire

 

The butterfly sat

On bark of tree drenched in moss

And forgot to fly

Mind stilled by chaos around

Sought no roots for its penance

 

The nightingale crowed

In wake of day it renewed

To changing times’ art

Wavering thoughts break habit

Do miracles come from change?

 

The crow lost its voice

To challenging bird of night

And flew skies listless

Crowds gathered under false flags

And burnt fear into cities

 

The leaves flew in wind

While their boughs caught them tearful

From parting’s sorrow

Hearts split from minds’ adventure

Ventured not to mourn anew

 

The Universe rocked

As stars revealed hidden grace

And galaxies reeled

Lost souls spun out of balance

Insanity beheld Earth

 

 

 

 

Electricity

Electricity

17 January 2015

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Clouds gathered in sky

Fluffy bundles of rain charged

Blue infinity

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxGxMhUYafw