Flowers of Darkness

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“Shades of Light” – yamabuki
‘What the fates decree
Even the gods must obey’
- maitreya bodhisattva 

Necessity is wedded to Time
Ananke and Khronos
Weaving our fates
Rolling our lives
Into coils of Razor wire 

Yet I choose to see it differently
I see three sisters
Older than time
Tired of their endless days
They shut their eyes tightly 

Their sighs long for surcease
Yet we show them our lives
That repeat so endlessly
Continuous spirals of continuity
That drive the Fates to madness 

They turn their vision to the sun
Our lives spin heedlessly on
Eggshell lives of light and yolk
Breaking endlessly to slivers
Shivers of shadowy compulsion 

No need to compel obedience
We follow our downward path
As if our lives depended on it
We know the destination sure
In the river of our scarred lives 

Yet these words too are lies
Seeking to trap and ensnare
I too look at the sun
Its’ brightness burns with truth
More painful than darkness 

Yet I cannot look away
For ensnared by this vision
I am surely lost
To the shades of darkness
That would claim my soul 

yamabuki
Sept 2011 

This poem inspired by
“Slivers of Necessity”
By Marousia

Cast in Blue

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Cosmic Egg – Maco Nishida

‘The world around us
is very mysterious, ” he said.
“It doesn’t yield its secrets easily’
- Carlos Castaneda

I prefer them all in blue
Against a shadowy background
Do you hear them whispering too
Speaking their foggy shades
Against the night’s dodgy dreams

And what have they become
These mind’s eye mosquitoes
What meanings do they carry
What colors have they shed
What says the Delphic muse so sly

Speak up you say
Roll them around your tongue
Out and out they arrive
Limber of limb outspoken
spewed from a dead man’s eyes

For I trust them not
That demon spawn that snares our cries
Gathering jealous books
They speak of truth in lies
Tattering cities in their wicked pride

I Trust not their bloody muse
With her lustful eyes of sin
She twists and scampers freely
Reading my blood and veins
And would steal my broken sighs

I’ve been over this bridge before
Seen Lethe’s water passing by
Many times these words have been spoken
So many times have they arrived
As we lonely walked the path of graves

yamabuki
August 2011

Yokai Art Project

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What you see here
Is an art project
Created not by aliens,
But by a Yokai

Yokai are spirit creatures
Some are shape shifters
Like:Tanuki (raccoon dog)
Kitsune (foxes)
Hebi (snakes)
Mujina (badgers)
Bakeneko (cats)
Ōkami (wolves)
Tsuchigumo and jorōgumo (spiders)
Inugami (dogs)
Some are Oni
Ogre like beings
Some are objects
Old discarded things
That become sentient
like: Bakezouri (straw sandals)
Biwa-bokuboku ( a lute)
Bura-bura (A paper lantern)
Karakasa (old umbrellas)
Kameosa (old sake jars)
Morinji-no-kama (tea kettles)
Mokmoku Ren (Paper screens, with eyes)
Some are human
like:Rokuro-kubi (humans 
able to elongate their necks 
during the night)
Ohaguro-bettari (a figure, 
usually female, that turns 
to reveal a face 
with only a blackened mouth)
Futakuchi-onna (a woman 
with a voracious 
extra mouth on the back of her head)
Dorotabō (the risen corpse 
of a farmer, who haunts his abused land)
And some are just strange
Like: Azuki Arai (a yokai 
who is always found washing azuki beans).
Akaname (only found 
in dirty bathrooms and spends its time 
licking the filth left by the untidy owners).
Ashiarai Yashiki (A gargantuan foot 
that appears in rooms and demands 
the terrified home owner washes it)
Tofu Kozo (a small monk 
who carries a plate with a block of tofu).

yamabuki
Sept 2011

Shady Corners

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Who are these Catty cats
With their shady corners
Catty-cornered to reality
Who always are found on
Shady cornered days and
Round the corner nights
Though I always live
Kitty-corner to the
Local coroner’s office
Just in case of trouble
With the local hello kitties
Who live catty-corner
To the station
Under the tracks
Drinking their Starbucks lattes
Yamabuki
Sept 2011

Waiting

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Never speaking
Never moving
Ever seeing
Ever knowing
Neither alive
Nor dead
We shape the world
As you shape us
We dress the world
As you dress us
Having no thoughts
We know everything
Having no feelings
We are still here
In the light of night
In the shadows of day
Waiting patiently
yamabuki
Sept 2011