Late summer

Out in the garden
the bugs have stopped their chirping
on this rainy night -
but from the wall comes the sound
of a single cricket

- Kyogoku Tamekane

Has dawn come so soon?
The grass I trampled before
is white with dew
when I return through the fields
after a night with the moon.

- Emperor Fushimi


From Waiting for the Wind - Thirty-Six Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Age, translated by Stephen D. Carter (Columbia University Press, 1989).

Hilary Tham

We remember Hilary Tham - poet, painter, encourager - with one of her own poems:

Mrs. Wei on Governments

Malaysian Government is like the American
price system: take it or leave it.
It's easy enough to leave a dress hanging

on the rack, but a country is not something
you can get up and walk away from. Your Congress
resembles our marketplace: haggling and shouting

until everyone is a little satisfied.
Can we visit a shop where I can talk
the price down? I want to buy a victory,

I need a good fight.

- Hilary Tham

(From Bad Names for Women.)

In memory of Hilary Tham Goldberg, 1947-2005.

For more, visit Hilary Tham's website. (Be sure to read her poetry workshops page.)