Koishikawa Korakuen #4 & #5

Leaf 141 – Garden Poems

 

These are the fourth and fifth poems in my sequence on Koishikawa Kōrakuen Gardens (see also, Leaf 108, Leaf 109, & Leaf 110).

 

The first of these two poems is almost a gembun, or perhaps it’s merely a haiku with a ‘prescript’ – I’m unsure. Although, in this instance, the prescript doesn’t really explain the context of the poem – so perhaps it is better to read it as a gembun. The first line could easily be read as part of the ensuing verse. It was inspired by a genuine sight which in turn prompted a chain of thoughts and associations to flow, threading parallel lines through and in response to the moment. While standing on a path, looking down into the placid water of the big pond of Kōrakuen, which had a colour and cloudy-consistency rather like green tea, I watched a tortoise swimming in a manner which suggested pure enjoyment. Unhurried and without holding to any particular course – in contrast to another tortoise which I saw later, who was swimming very determinedly in a straight line and at speed – this chap was idly drifting as though he or she were simply savouring the sensation of free-floating and just bobbing around, enjoying the feeling of buoyancy and the coolness of the water under the bright warmth of the sun. When I swim, this is how I like to swim too.

 

 

All the time in the world:

 

A tortoise –

takes a leisurely swim,

in a jade-green universe.

 

 

Just behind me, beside the path, I next noticed a curious rock. The striations in the green rock seemed to mirror my vision of the pond behind me and the scatter of white quartz crystals within it seemed to echo my mental association of only a moment ago, seeing the tortoise floating in the water in a manner which suggested a certain idea of space and time, with the star clusters of the Milky Way tracing a path through the void, like the lines in the bark, lines in water. Somehow the two things seemed intimately connected. All things, we are told, are essentially born out of star dust. Hence, recalling the Buddha seeking enlightenment while seated quietly beneath the Bodhi Tree. In that instant, I realised I had two poems. Two snapshots in time, and two thoughts which were essentially one.

 

 

White quartz –

scattered in green stone,

centred at the foot of a tree.

 

 

 

Photographs by Tim Chamberlain