The Plenitude of Emptiness

Haibun - Held In The Stone

2009-07-02T16:36:00.004-04:00

Held In The Stone

I stroll across the park as the sun dips
into the pond, spreading a layer of gold
leaf.

Held in the stone of a granite bench, the
warmth of the sun remains - final traces
of day.

night coolness-
the rustle of cobalt
in a leafy sky

Haibun - Becoming

2009-06-03T19:46:00.006-04:00

Becoming

The haiku master Basho said,
"Learn of the pine by becoming the pine.
.Learn of the bamboo by becoming the bamboo."

A master of becoming sits beside me. I wonder
what he learned from all he has been.

becoming
the leaf, the twig...
a chameleon

Haibun - Jazz

2009-05-10T17:58:00.003-04:00

Jazz

He kisses me out of the blue
moonlight into the smoky dark
club until after awhile I feel us
making music...

sax player
before the tonic accent
a swig of gin

Haibun - Another Spring

2009-04-13T21:58:00.000-04:00

Another Spring

i find myself the lone one in alone and
lonely in the place we used to love the
sound of

each other's echoes
finishing
each other's echoes

Haibun - Blue Spring Oolong

2009-03-01T23:40:00.002-05:00

Blue Spring Oolong

The tea has travelled from the Fujian province of winding
mountain streams with gentle breezes at 3000 feet. The
leaves, slightly fermented, are shaped by hand with liquorice
sugar into pebbles resembling unpolished lapis lazuli. As the
oolong steeps, the deepening amber emits a delicate aroma,
spreading a light, unexpected sweetness onto the tongue.

Spring
sky blue sky
through the leaves

Haibun - A Sunday Almost Night

2009-02-09T11:24:00.001-05:00

A Sunday Almost Night

Down by the jetty I sit as the sun dips
into the distant ocean, crossing the nearly
straight line between sea and sky.

It vanishes slowly, leaving rays of light
in peach and rose, soaked up by cotton
clouds.

As they pass above me, hastened by a
cool wind, I head back home, the sand
still warm beneath my bare feet.

moonless night -
the sky becomes
day's shadow

Haibun - Drift

2009-01-01T01:16:00.001-05:00

Drift

Through the depths of a dream, I can
feel your touch...rising, roused, we glide
in a featherbed, half-awake, half-asleep.

scented sheets -
white lilac covered by
the darkness of snow

Held by you, on some wading pond,
I float and arc - letting myself fly as
bow, arrow and target become one.

The archer hits the mark.

rings through rings --
the glow of a Romeo
y Julieta

Haibun - The Colour of Rain

2008-12-01T19:57:00.003-05:00

The Colour of Rain

The early autumn that she moved next to me, some
of the roots had taken hold on my side. Branches
had given way through slats in the fence I built.
Twisted shadows climbed above the arbours beyond...

This late spring, her lawn will be a lush green but
mine will be hidden beneath dewy, snowlike, silken
drifts. They will be the most delicate hues of dusk and
dawn in sweet, damp clouds, the colour of rain.

by moonlight,
I cut a spray of plum
from my neighbour's tree

Haibun - Lys Mediterranee

2008-11-01T10:18:00.007-04:00

Lys Mediterranee

She takes my hand, murmurs my name,
then gives it back.

"Ah, memories" she sighs.

Almost two decades have passed since
I clutched her chill hand...

The hill is steep, nearly a straight drop
into shimmering sand, a turquoise sea.
Green warmth of angelica root weaves
through grass wild with lilies.

"If I jump will you love me?" she laughed.
"I already love you" I lied.

Wearing caftans, we eat tabouleh with
bare hands.

sun aslant
a casablanca lily's
oblique shadow

hortensia anderson

Haibun - Calligraphy Exhibition III

2008-10-31T09:27:00.001-04:00

Calligraphy Exhibition III

I wait as the Master waits. He inhales and
with his brush of black sumi ink, he exhales
the enso on cream-white parchment.

zazen --
inhale the belly enso
exhale the world

Haibun - Gazelle

2008-09-01T03:47:00.003-04:00

Gazelle

Frightened souls somehow find each other.
As I stepped into the bar, I found you.

By daylight, the forest of darkness dissipated
revealing us naked, in a clearing. Thus, I fled.

Tonight, you clutch me, say you are lost without
me - forget the three decade chasm between us.

So I relent - between my breasts, you dream like
a baby - having lost this fear that keeps me from
telling you my real name.

a swirl of leaves...
the startled gazelle
bounds away

Haibun - The Beach Scene

2008-08-01T00:35:00.001-04:00

The Beach Scene

They embrace until, almost entirely
beneath the waves, she runs, lying
across a stretch of sand.
He follows. Standing, then kneeling
above, droplets of sea dripping, his
mouth crushes into hers.
She tells him nobody ever kissed her
the way he does.
How I yearn to say those lines...

rolling in sand --
we make love with the moon
in the sea

Haibun - Heart of the Pond

2008-07-07T10:35:00.002-04:00

Heart of the Pond

We wait between stones thrown
at the moon mirrored on the pond.
It shatters in circles of light, spreading
to the edges, returning to the centre
as if nothing had happened.

embankment -
purple liatris spikes
reach for the stars

Haibun - Haiku Moment

2008-06-01T23:31:00.001-04:00

Haiku Moment

I sit on the jetty, a marbled paper
notebook and fountain pen with
shimmering ink in my lap.

haiku -
through the everchanging
clouds, clouds

Haibun - Calligraphy Exhibition II

2008-05-04T01:13:00.001-04:00

Calligraphy Exhibition II

With one stroke of a sweeping curve,
the black river flows through untramelled
white.

enso --
the circles unroll into
ever straighter lines

Haibun - Nowhere

2008-04-10T22:05:00.001-04:00

Nowhere

In a rare state of clarity, it occurs
to me that it has been over half a
century for me to find the "here"
and "now" in "nowhere".

lost in the green paths
of destinations
a maze

Haibun - Diana

2008-03-13T02:41:00.001-04:00

DIANA

In a grove of oak, the Roman goddess of
the moon bathes in a sparkling spring.

With her final breath, she runs fleet-footed
into the forests of another dream.

Do not mourn - she has not been lost. In
sleep, waking from dream to dream, you
will find her - in a moonbeam, in the light
the stars stole shining between the branches
of trees, in the limpid eyes of a wild deer as
she waits for you to stroke her spotted pelt .

in darkness...
the moon always somewhere
in the sky

Haibun - Reaching Blue

2008-02-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

Reaching Blue

How do they do it, I wonder as I lie
sprawled in my hammock? How do
the birds reach the blue in the sky?
How do they feel reaching blue?

I have jumped out of planes, been
lifted by colossal waves whilst surfing,
climbed dangerous cliffs, done triple flips
in gymnastics but never reached blue.

Then it happens.

As I row across the pond, a blueness seeps
into me and I keep saying "The sky is so blue,
have you ever known a sky so blue?" as a
camera keeps clicking like the trill of a bird.

The photograph in the gallery by my friend
Gabriela, considered the best of the collection,
is a black and white, extreme close-up of my face.
The sticker below says: "hortensia: reaching blue".

sky overhead -
a cloud disappears
out of the blue

Haibun - All The Way

2008-01-03T16:03:00.000-05:00

All The Way

After we make love, I call him, say
"take me to the beach" and without
a word, he does. He drives me all
the way to Montauk Point.

You say you want to know, before
knowing you don't, why I keep coming
back to you, going all the way, but never
staying, always leaving with him.

I will tell you just this once - he never asks.
We drink. The sea bubbles into the sand.
He waits. He gives me that.

summer night -
the moon wavers
in my whiskey

Haibun - Green Balloon

2007-12-04T19:05:00.000-05:00

Green Balloon

We had swayed in the moonlight like
palms in the courtyard breeze...

...the sun is a shadow as I sit with your
remains without your reason.

green balloon -
I hold his breath
in my hands

Haibun - Venus

2007-11-09T06:02:00.000-05:00

Venus

Through the seafoam you found me,
ground me into swirls of sand as
the evening star turned morning.

I sit by the shore, lost in memory.

The sea reaches out to me in waves
as I wonder if a single grain in the
stretch of sand we made love on remains.

venus --
a pearl in the blue
half-shell of heaven

Haibun - The Spell

2007-10-02T23:09:00.000-04:00

The Spell

Spirits in the wine escape the bottle and
enchant us - body, mind and soul.
Last night, we made love with the passion
of the lovers we once were.
Today, my heart overflows with an emptiness
I have known too often and too well.

wild grapes -
ripeness bursts
through the skins

Haibun - A Chinese Folding Screen

2007-09-22T16:41:00.000-04:00

A Chinese Folding Screen

The wood bridge has a faded feel, muted by
clumps of brilliant blue iris with gilded gold
leaves. How amazing that all this loveliness
has been flowing for centuries from one man's
brush.

splashes of ink --
a narrow stream branches
into eight channels

Haibun - A Dream For You

2007-08-01T17:46:00.000-04:00

A Dream For You

You feel a hand caressing you in a
dream. At first, you think your dead
lover has returned to rescue you from
dreaming your life away. You awaken.

Stars fall through the sea, their light jewels
the scales of tropical fish and play their lullaby
in Phrygian mode.You float in and out of
shadows on a bed of sand, as fine as crushed
sedative powder, drifting, drifting...

You feel a hand caressing you in a
dream. You reach out and the hand
clasps around yours. You are asleep.
I know. I dreamed you.

tangled hair -
lovers entwined
on a beach

Haibun - The Muse

2007-07-01T03:26:00.000-04:00

The Muse

This I can tell you with certainty - my muse
has died. I discovered her swaying lightly in
the closet, hanged. As I unknotted the noose,
she sank into my hand and dissolved into spark-
ling ash which disappeared. All that remained
was a closet with a silk rope.

She didn't bother to leave a note.

Spring dream --
a haibun in my journal
called "The Muse"