DEATH


Why did you vanish

into the empty sky?

Even the fragile snow,

when it falls,

falls in this world.

Izumi Shikibu
From Open Mind - by Diane Mariechild

Izumi's poem portrays the sorrow of a

mother mourning the death of her daughter.

The pain is palpable. There is no disguise.

There is no attempt to cover the pain

with intellectualization. We can watch to

see where the snow lands as it falls. We

can't see what happens after death. Any thoughts

we have about what might happen are just that,

thoughts. It is only our ability to directly

experience this world, the sorrow and the joy,

that brings us to a space between intellect

and emotion, beyond hope and sorrow.

el - C. Little, no less, who has a great blog of photographs, poetry, her life and sometimes politics, had this. I was out with some people the other day and the conversation turned to haikus and short image poems like this that looked so easy but weren't.