酷我-北美枫

ericcoliu

Reading and Writing: Life on the Page

A Blade of Grass? (Contemporary Haibun -- Japanese Prose Poem)

How do we have an inner dialogue and hence a living relationship to the answering voice of the 'other' in ourselves? Can we achieve this by talking about the meaning of life with a blade of grass?

It is said that a man is like a blade of grass:

"He grows up in spring, strong, healthy and green; as time goes by, he reaches middle age and ripens in late summer; then he withers in autumn and finally ceases living in winter. He just fades away and never comes back, just like a blade of grass.”

When you’re dead, you are dead. Facing the certainty of death, how does one achieve a sense of immortality in an otherwise humdrum life? I believe that we all want to make an impact, leave a trace of some kind, and at the same time, we, too, feel like grunts in the game of life.

Is any day of being
above the ground and vertical
a good one?
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

ericcoliu

Said a Blade of Grass bY Khalil Gibran

Said a blade of grass to an autumn leaf, "You make such a noise falling! You scatter all my winter dreams."

Said the leaf indignant, "Low-born and low-dwelling! Songless, peevish thing! You live not in the upper air and you cannot tell the sound of singing."

Then the autumn leaf lay down upon the earth and slept. And when spring came she waked again--and she was a blade of grass.

And when it was autumn and her winter sleep was upon her, and above her through all the air the leaves were falling, she muttered to herself, "O these autumn leaves! They make such noise! They scatter all my winter dreams."
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

ericcoliu · 发表于: 星期六二月 09, 2008 6:14 pm 发表主题:

Poem Lyrics of A Blade of Grass Brian Patten

You ask for a poem.
I offer you a blade of grass.
You say it is not good enough.
You ask for a poem.

I say this blade of grass will do.
It has dressed itself in frost,
It is more immediate
Than any image of my making.

You say it is not a poem,
It is a blade of grass and grass
Is not quite good enough.
I offer you a blade of grass.

You are indignant.
You say it is too easy to offer grass.
It is absurd.
Anyone can offer a blade of grass.

You ask for a poem.
And so I write you a tragedy about
How a blade of grass
Becomes more and more difficult to offer,

And about how as you grow older
A blade of grass
Becomes more difficult to accept.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

ericcoliu · 发表于: 星期六二月 09, 2008 6:31 pm 发表主题:

Song Lyrics of Blade Of Grass by Off Topic
Album: I Think I Exist, 2004

I am a blade of grass
One of many
My brothers are countless
And so are my enemies
I grew from seed
I am a blade of grass
One of many
My brothers come in many types
From many countries
But we all grow from seed
Some are born in cultures
A lawn in the suburbs
Fed and protected by the overlord
With the jean shorts and the fertilizer
They are strong and safe together
But when they grow up tall
Like individuals
Their god cuts them all
Til they are beautiful
All the same, all pawns in a larger game
I've heard of grass
My distant brothers
Who must fight to survive on their own
They know not
Of the lawnmower
They are savage
Their quality of life is much harder
If only they'd realize
They could be saved
If it wasn't for our god
We would fear them
Who would save us from savages?
Block our sun and drink our water
If they could

Bow down now and worship the lawnmower
He controls your fate
You are in his domain
He will save you from the evils of the world
As soon as you fall in line
I am a blade of grass
Compassionate
I want to save all my brothers
Systematically
To preserve the peace
Other blades of grass
My brothers
Who weren't pretty in the eyes of our god
Tried to unite with our lawn
In our sod
But our god
Who we all give our lives to
Poisoned our brothers
I watched them burn in the sun
And fall to their deaths
So I left the lawn
Into the wilderness
And I fear drought and insects and weeds
But I will always be free
With no lawnmower controlling me
I am a blade of grass
One of many
How long until the lawnmower finds me?
And what I can do about it when he does?
I am no match, a single blade of grass

Bow down now and worship the lawnmower
But when they grow up tall
He controls your fate
Like individuals
You are in his domain
Their God cuts them all, til they are beautiful
He will save you from the evils of the world
All The same, all pawns in a larger game
As soon as you fall in line
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

ericcoliu · 发表于: 星期六二月 09, 2008 6:45 pm 发表主题:

Hullagu bettadadi by Dr. D. V. Gundappa

Be a (gentle) blade of grass at the foot of the mountain; and jasmine flower at home
Be (strong) like a rock when the fate pours (torrential) rain of difficulties on you
Be sweet like sugar and jaggery to the poor and weak
Be one with all, Mankutimma.

Note:

Hullagu bettadadi is one of the most popular poems collected in Mankuthimmana Kagga, the most famous and popular literary work in Kannada, composed by Dr. D. V. Gundappa who is known by the name D. V. G. Published in 1943, Mankuthimmana Kagga is widely regarded as a masterpiece among the Kannada speaking population in southern India. The title of this work can be literally translated as Song of Mankutimma which is a collection of 945 four-line poems.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

hahaview

fanfan · 发表于: 星期日二月 10, 2008 8:55 am 发表主题:

Champagne · 发表于: 星期日二月 10, 2008 8:30 pm 发表主题:

anna · Site Admin 注册时间: 2004-05-02 帖子: 7141

I remember Frost Robert once wrote a poem about the leaf fell and be soil of flowers. But I cannot find it since I forget the title.

Now I find another interesting one

Leaves Compared With Flowers
Robert Frost
A tree's leaves may be ever so good,
So may its bar, so may its wood;
But unless you put the right thing to its root
It never will show much flower or fruit.

But I may be one who does not care
Ever to have tree bloom or bear.
Leaves for smooth and bark for rough,
Leaves and bark may be tree enough.

Some giant trees have bloom so small
They might as well have none at all.
Late in life I have come on fern.
Now lichens are due to have their turn.

I bade men tell me which in brief,
Which is fairer, flower or leaf.
They did not have the wit to say,
Leaves by night and flowers by day.

Leaves and bar, leaves and bark,
To lean against and hear in the dark.
Petals I may have once pursued.
Leaves are all my darker mood.
_________________
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Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

fanfan · 发表于: 星期二二月 12, 2008 11:30 pm 发表主题:

ericcoliu

I've revised my piece.

The words of Achilles (Stanley Lombardo's version):

Don't try to sell me on death,
Odysseus,
I'd rather be a hired hand back up
on earth,
Slaving away for some poor dirt
farmer,
Than lord it over all these withered
dead.

The following is the thoughts from my poet friend, Rodney L. Eisenbrandt:

"A withered blade of grass covered by the fallen leaves of September curls and dries into slumber and waits for the warmth of spring when it returns to green and caresses the rains of summer.

Death is a yearly thing that gives rebirth in spring."
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

ericcoliu · 发表于: 星期三十月 22, 2008 5:10 pm 发表主题:

Below is a poem written by my poet friend Rodney L. Eisenbrandt as a reply to my haibun

Rhizome (Chen-ou Blade of Grass)

A withered blade of grass covered
by the fallen leaves of September
curls and dries into slumber
and waits for the warmth of spring
when it returns to green
and grows with the rains of summer.

Death is a yearly thing
that gives rebirth in spring,
though not the same blade
of grass, it’s roots are the same.

Life is continuous, though
we fail to clearly see, how
through generations, life
imitates that blade of grass.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul