|
walk your fingers on this cotton and silk journey that journeymen of old made, this quilted path up the mountain by which ships steered from which rains came to dissolve stars like sugar one-fifth of all men in guilds of hand-work filed from old Edo, hiking a day away, a world away to pray for their brothers to gods, flora and fauna as precious to them as ink sunk into their skin the fabric of their faith the sweat-dyed white cloth donned on pilgrimages up the sacred mountain now traces their steps in stitches under skies dotted with sparrows passing temple lodgings for later, after the summit we imagine their prayers hefted on huge wooden swords the men’s illustrated skins reminding their bones why climb their barely covered shoulders abloom with bruises and their necks shining with the forever of shared burdens |
|
what is left of these men’s
humble summit prayers and offerings their happy descent, the song and deep mountain drinking? only the fabric hung in the sun the day after, swinging on the balcony of the temple lodging the insignias washed clean, flattened by a loving hand and bound by a nimble needle fast as birds in autumn trees centuries and seasons shift so men left off pilgrimages and jackets and their hands grew idle as windfall branches 
|
yet where this quilt hangs
a tattoo calls across the ages and some still come to climb a god’s green spine shrine carp lazily stir clouds as one by one pilgrims hike upstream, disrobe to bare their ink and waterfall away impurities how strange it must feel to find this quilt only to have the culture of your skin turned inside out yet through the pines they go where rain tips every needle and gaze out from the summit to the unfinished edge of their story |
Kit Pancoast Nagamura completed a Ph.D. in literature shortly after moving to Japan permanently. She has co-hosted NHK World's HAIKU MASTERS for three years, and her haiku awards include Prizes of Excellence from Ito-en Oi Ocha International Contest and the Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo/Haiku Contest, and first place in the 2020 Santoka International Haiga contest. A member of the Haiku International Association and Ginza Poetry Society, she also serves as one of the judges for Washington D.C.’s international Golden Haiku Poetry Contest and the Setouchi Matsuyama International Haiku Contest. Her newest book, Grit, Grace, and Gold (Kodansha America, 2020), spotlights sports in haiku and includes work from international guests. She is married and has a son who reads almost all she writes with a superb critical eye.
Use and/or duplication of any content on White Enso is strictly prohibited without express and written permission from the author and/or owner.