The Dry Landscape Garden – Poem-a-Day # 7
Post #307
April 7, 2020
National Poetry Month
A Poem – a- Day
a GIFT from
Pennsylvania Author
Lynda McKinney Lambert
The Dry Landscape Garden
(karesansui)
by Lynda McKinney Lambert, April 2002
Tranquility.
Silent morning darkness
full pink moon lingers
behind night-time trees in silhouette.
sound of current flowing downstream
beyond the ridge.
sunrise filters through slowly
Red-tailed hawk perches on invisible
branch of towering sapphire pine
chants an even rhythm
a high-pitched piccolo
Rising sun warms Japanese rock garden
The morning ritual
My outstretched hand passes over
pale worn stones. I sift and shift
pebbles tumbled through ages.
I clasp stones in my hand
consider the life-force inside each one.
A carefully compressed, arranged peaceful garden
mossy patches, blue Japanese grass
tiny pink pearl buds on slender branches
weeping Tamukeyama tree
yellow grass sprouts through stony floor
My husband is an aged monk as
he bends over – raking.
raking.
scraping the waves with his bamboo rake
he gathers twigs in the afternoon sunshine.
Zen meditation garden, his deep
blue shadow glides over hand-cut barn-stone wall
reclines on thick spring grass
Brightness floods the steps to the porch
our hojo,
residence of the chief monk
our private monastery
Tonight, we speak quietly about
verdant moss and pruning
and how the raking of stones resembles waves of
the Caribbean sea.
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Photos by Lynda McKinney Lambert.
April 2020
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Courtesy of Lynda McKinney Lambert, Pennsylvania Author and Visual Artist.
Poetry and Photography by Lynda McKinney Lambert.
Copyright, April 7, 2020. All rights reserved.
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Robbie Cheadle’s Review of Lynda’s new book – Star Signs: New & Selected Poems
about a wide variety of different topics that are grouped together under the following four sections which indicate their overarching theme: Lights Across the Sky, Distant Legends & Metaphors, Transmutation of Earthy Elements and Seasons, Days and Years.
The poet’s use of language is rich and theatrical as is illustrated by the following short extracts:
“Accomplishments seem possible
before dawn
concentric choices are unlimited”
“The lively sonata of midday skies
responds to the muted notes of night skies.
Time is temporal. Immeasurable.”