Day: January 4, 2019

 
Blue
~
This is Tanka Prose, similar to Haibun. Instead of the Haibun’s Haiku ending, this features a Tanka, of my composition, at its close. The 31-syllable Tanka has been the most popular form of poetry in Japan for over 1300 years. As a form of poetry, Tanka is older than Haiku, and Tanka poems are intended to be evocative.

During Japan’s Heian period (794 to 1185 A.D.) it was considered essential for a woman or man of culture to be able to both compose beautiful poetry and to choose the most aesthetically pleasing and appropriate paper, ink, and symbolic attachment, such as a branch or flower, to go with it.

Tanka have changed and evolved over the centuries beyond the traditional expressions of passion and heartache, and styles have changed to include modern language. But the five syllabic units, containing a total of 31 syllables, has remained the same. Each line of a Tanka consists of one image or idea. One does not seek to wrap lines in tanka, though in the best Tanka, the five lines do relate, to evoke a cohesive feeling. The feeling here is serenity.

birds in the blue sky
sampans on the blue waters
blue temple gateway

blue is the soul of serene
let it calm your restless heart

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2019

________________

This tanka was inspitred by the wonderful art seen above. It is entitled “Blue Temple” by Vorffy.

“Infinite Instance” by: rob kistner © 1997
 
Through The Veil

~

I am nearing the veil
soon to push through
to see that which
is not shown us here
on this side
of that gossamer curtain

unable as we are
in this manifestation
to comprehend
the incomprehensible
the infinite secret
the truth that bursts to light

but when I push through
I will ride that light
in all ways through time
simultaneously at once
at the eternal instant
the open door of forever

existance will be no more
I will be absolute
indivisible from time
absorbed by all of space
a joy so profound
as to be pure energy

I was given the gift
of the briefest glimpse
beyond the veil
I was not ready
I again near the veil
I am ready now

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2019

This is a contemplation on crossing over. On April 6th of 2017 my heart stopped while in the hospital, the night I was recovering from a heart operation. The memory of that lingers. It is the memory of that experience that has inspired this poem. To be sure, this is an idealized imagining of what crossing over may be like. However, it is informed by an amazing and singularly unique feeling of blissful well being that had filled me that night, and from which I was grudgingly roused by the act of being awakened, from what I thought then, was sleep. Very soon thereafter it was confirmed by my cardiologist not to have been sleep. He explained to me it was a state that could have remained quite permanent, and I was about to receive an urgent Pacemaker implant. That night still holds mysteries for me.