Taiwan.Japan. SAKURA

Taiwan. Tree in blossom.


Blossom Tree

If you could see as I did see
White blossoms on an ancient tree
And sense the fragrance on the breeze
Slight trace.

Would you wonder how this plant
Alone and grown without some hand
To nurture its advance could bear
Such fruit.

How long will this exhausted frame
Continue to adorn its crown
And offer such commanding place
Among us.

Too soon I fear that this will be
Farewell to these sweet blows
And in the ground our aged tree
Will strew.
                  Alan Robertson

                                   Japan. Sakura

Shining spring day
Falling cherry blossoms with my calm mind
.~ Kino Tomonari

Japan. Himeji Castle 

(Hakuro-jō ("White Egret Castle") or Shirasagi-jō ("White Heron Castle") 

registered in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan

Himeji Castle

The first typhoon of September
took away the warmth and soon
there’ll be nothing to remember.
Rain smooths away stone, which forgets
last month’s hot sun now it’s wet.
Having climbed scores of stairs
to the topmost rooms we pause
and take in what is left to see:
paintings, muskets, swords; a haiku
book written by a feudal lord
now gone with all his retinue,
written away. Just this remains:
outside there is only air
and the air is full of rain.

                    Leon Trainor