Poetry Corner: Hearts Together

POETRY CORNER

– 8/03/16

♣ We welcome and encourage your response especially in the form of short poems. You may reply by leaving a comment below.

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Moon by Natalia Rudychev.

Tomiko Matsumoto

Is it secretly watching
over ten thousand people
sound asleep?
The moon above Heart Mountain
shines clearly tonight

Tomiko Matsumoto (1900-2005) wrote this specific tanka in Japanese while behind barbed wire at the WWII U.S. Government prison camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. In 1960 she published a collection of tanka, her own poems and those of her husband, Ryokuyo Matsumoto, called “By the Shore of Lake Michigan” in Japanese. Their grandaughter, Nancy Matsumoto, is preparing an English translation of the tanka collection with Kyoko Miyabe and Mariko Aratani, and gave us the above tanka for our theme. This is the first English-language translation. Nancy learned that Kathabela was visiting NYC and met her on the first day of her visit, a happy reaffirmation of a poetic friendship that began with Nancy and Kyoko’s presentation on her translation project which Kathabela and poets attended at “Tanka Sunday” in Abany NY, in 2015, at the conclusion of the Haiku North America conference.

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Brookfield Place in the Rain near Poets House NYC (Photo – Kathabela Wilson).

Deborah P Kolodji

lights of New York
her poem, my poem
your poem

New York
behind rain clouds
the milky way

Deborah P Kolodji presented haiku and senryu from her book, Highway of Sleeping Towns, at the Poets House in NYC and at the NYC Poetry festival on Governor’s Island. She lives in Temple City, CA. Her book is published by Teresa Mei Chuc, Shabda Press, of Pasadena, who inspired our trip and performances.

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Stars by Natalia Rudychev.

Natalia Rudychev

the stars have met
somewhere far away
to form a constellation
the light shines through the hearts
that feel akin

Natalia Rudychev is a dancer, artist and poet who lives in New York City. She met Kathabela during her recent visit to New York. It was their first meeting in person. They had all sensed the feelings of poetic kinship before they met, and confirmed them when together.

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New York City Poetry Festival, Governors Island (Photo – Kathabela Wilson).

> The Poetry Corner is hosted by Kathabela Wilson. All the poets on today’s corner were in New York City last weekend for the celebration of poetic friendship and the hope it inspires. Deborah P Kolodji who leads the local Southern CA Haiku Study Group presented her new haiku book at Poets House and at the wonderful New York Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island where Kathabela and her husband Rick and Mariko Kitakubo from Tokyo also performed. Nancy Matsumoto and Natalia Rudychev, who both live in New York City, made a point of coming to meet everyone and attend events.
Our Poetry Corner online “constellations” lead to powerful personal connection and work that continues to grow the seeds of hope internationally.