Poets Salon: Magic Garden

POETS SALON

– 7/17/19

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

How did I find myself in the magic garden? Someone left me here one day and I let myself be lost listening, watching. I walk mapless, quickly and aimlessly in and around, over the paths, some familiar, some new. Unsure, yet free, the wind carries me. Refreshed, vigorous, the garden is mine.

In a magic Garden. Nogoya, Japan (Photo – Masa Jimbo)

did we meet in a dream
was the window left open
every turn a mirror
a pinwheel flower spins
inward

~ Kath Abela

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Jean Sudbury’s Magic Garden Hens and Chicks (Photo – Kath Abela Wilson)

Jean Sudbury

morning conversation

red whiskered bulbuls
greet each other

in the tops of the trees
hey cutie
really good to be here

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Cactus flower in the magic garden (Photo – Jean Sudbury)

M. Kei

hens and chicks
the most forgiving
of plants
love thrives
even in barren soil

lemon,
orange, and persimmon,
sherbet colors
that feed the mind
no one can starve in the desert

snakes, too,
are happy visitors
did anyone
ever think that the Serpent
might have longed for Eden?

seeing only her skirt
at first
I thought she was a
butterfly bush
in joyous bloom

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The Encouter, a painting by Richard Scully

Pauli Dutton

once I was
a butterfly
might I be one again
come upon myself
along this same path

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White Azaleas (Photo – Veronica Iwanaga)

Reka Nyitrai

the dolls she never had—
white azaleas

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all I could have been…
root bound azalea

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Dragonfly (Photo – Tzetska Iliyeva)

Pat Geyer

shut in, i look out…
wing of a blue dragonfly
dashes me away

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Magic of water in the garden (Photo – Tzetzka Ilieva)

Tzetska Ilieva

looking all day down
at lotuses, I forgot
there was a world above

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Magic Garden: Quotes and Credits

Jean Sudbury says: “I listen to these birds and I swear that they talk like this. That’s what I hear.” Jean’s “magic garden” in Sierra Madre, California, has inspired many visiting poets and is frequented by many kinds of birds and appreciative wildlife. The tanka here by M.Kei were in fact inspired by images he saw of her garden. Jean teaches yoga and meditation and is a long-time musician and gardener. She writes with Poets on Site and has joined us as poet and player at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden. She writes on arts and the environment for Colorado Boulevard.net.

M. Kei is a tall ship sailor and award-winning poet who lives on Maryland’s Eastern shore. He’s the editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka (formerly A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka). He was the editor-in-chief of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Vols. 1–4, and the editor of Bright Stars, An Organic Tanka Anthology. His most recent collection of poetry is January, A Tanka Diary. He is also the author of the award-winning gay Age of Sail adventure novels, Pirates of the Narrow Seas.

Pauli Dutton recently retired after 30 years as a librarian at the Altadena Library, California. She enjoys having more time to write, sing, and dance. She, and her husband of 50 years Richard Dutton, meet with Pasadena Poets on Site weekly and have participated in many of their books and performances. They also join at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden often and their poems are included in our anthology Stone Lantern, 2019. Pauli says: “Visiting the garden is entering a world where every leaf is a meditation.” Pauli’s tanka included in today’s salon was inspired by the painting “The Encounter” by Richard Scully, shown in a retrospective exhibit of his work at the Arbor Academy of Art.

Reka Nyitrai lives in Bucharest, Romania. She writes haiku, tanka and cherita. She was born in Transylvania, a land that she truly considers magic. If she was given a chance to reborn, she would like to be a red wild tulip in the middle of a sunny meadow.

Pat Geyer lives in East Brunswick, NJ, USA. Her home is surrounded by the parks and lakes where she finds her dragonfly spirit comes alive. Published in several journals, she is an amateur photographer and poet.

Tzetzka Ilieva lives in Marietta, Georgia. She writes short poems in English and Bulgarian. During the weekends she often visits the local gardens for a slow walk up the hills and around the ponds. Some days she returns home with a short poem, other days – with dozens of photos.

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response, especially in the form of a short poem, by leaving a comment below.

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