Japanese Poems
by Cynthia Zarin
Between the bent boughs
of the splayed sumac the silver
owl rests his head.
The perimeter
left by your absence is long
to walk in one day.
The angel in her
credenza of extreme beauty
dogs swim the river
I look for my heart
by the lamp where the light is
skitter in the wet black leaves
PHOTO: Ural owl in Japan. Photo by Feathercollector, used by permission.
NOTE: The Ural owl is a fairly large nocturnal owl. Both its common name and scientific name refer to the Ural Mountains of Russia, but this species has a broad distribution that extends as far west as Scandinavia, eastern Europe, and central Europe to as far east as Sakhalin and throughout Japan. The Japanese name for owl, Fukuro, can be written in different sets of characters: One set means luck and the another means protection from hardship. Owls have become popular as engimono (Japanese for lucky charms), and an enormous variety of owl merchandise and souvenirs can be found in modern Japan.
POETRY and PLACES 