​​


Memory of a Lute Song

Linked verse between
​ John Rhett (artist)
and
Margaret Chula (poet) 
at a Vermont Studio Center Residency

in the midday sun
everything is sharp and bright
so mysterious


                                           lying in the grass
                                           with my eyes tightly closed
                                           the darkness


a room in Vermont
something stirring the stillness
sun, and then the clouds


                                           somehow comforting
                                           the call of the mourning dove
                                           through rain


sparkling, yet deep
talking beside the water
How brilliant it is!


                                           living in the now
                                           two white ducks
                                           in evening shadows


konichiwa, you
the Zen circle, emptiness
or an Anglo eye


                                           late into the night
                                           we talk of revelations
                                           moon through the pines


I didn’t see the cat
He was under this table
And I was thinking of cats


                                           resident feline
                                           Charlie or is it George?
                                           responds to neither


​​groping in the dark
over there—a stripe
of moonlight 


                                           rough drafts
                                           together we weave a life
                                           this sultry night


watching the rain
when did it become
the memory of a lute song

Margaret Chula has published fourteen poetry collections including, most recently, Firefly Lanterns: Twelve Years in Kyoto. This haibun memoir received a 2022 NYC Big Book Award in Multicultural Nonfiction and an honorable mention in the 2022 Haiku Society of America’s Book Award. A featured speaker and workshop leader at haiku conferences around the world, she has also served as president of the Tanka Society of America, Poet Laureate for Friends of Chamber Music, and is currently on the Advisory Board for the Center for Japanese Studies. Maggie lives in Portland, Oregon, where she hikes, swims, gardens, and creates flower arrangements.

John Rhett is an art professor at Houghton College and has a life-long interest in Asian arts and culture.

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