I’ve missed a lot, even my Saturday visit to the Oracle. I’ll start to catch up tomorrow. Meanwhile, this is last week’s form, chosen by Paul Brookes.

I enjoy these very short, imagistic poems without the constraint of counting syllables. Looking on Wikipedia for examples, my browser took me to the French Wikipédia and it struck me that this form, like many short, imagist forms, is very much suited to the French language. I tried the form in English, both English and French, and in French. First attempts tended to be longer, possibly trying to add too much detail, and later poems much sparser, which is arguably more in the Japanese spirit.

Gogyohka

1.

rain falls and falls from grey oceans
sky colour of gulls and pigeons
laps shorelines of golden grasses
where kestrels hang
banners of long red wings

2.

mornings
grey as twilit cats
ripple into song
as…