Unblinded

Once, you heard space as soundscape,
tasted the difference between red and green
smelt the changing of the leaves,
touched to interpret shape.

And now the newly seen is mystery
a confusion of beauty
too much miracle.

You close your eyes, read the Braille
of your lover’s face,
feel her breath on your skin.

Her heartbeat in the dark.


Poetry Thursday prompt: synaesthesia.

Haiku - windows and doorways

On One Deep Breath this week we are asked to write haiku about windows or doorways:

your blue eyes
full of gentleness and love -
windows on your soul.

Das Schloß - Franz Kafka

Ich lese jetzt Das Schloß auf Deutsch!! Einige Deutsche haben mir gesagt Kafka wäre zu schwerig für mich auf Deutsch zu verstehen. Find ich aber, daß Kafka nicht ganz kompliziert beschrieben hat. Mit Kafka, sind es immer die Ideen die kompliziert sind. Egal in Deutsch oder English. So die Wörter sind nicht das Problem. Das Problem ist was hinter die Wörter liegt. Und das ist manchmal fremd und kompliziert..... Glückerlicherweise sind es viele websites über Kafka:

http://www.xlibris.de/Autoren/Kafka/Interpretationen/Schloss.htm
http://www.dieterwunderlich.eu/Kafka_schloss.htm
http://www.franz-kafka.net/das-schloss/

I'm reading Kafka's The Castle at the minute - in German! Some native German speakers had said to me that Kafka would be too difficult for me to read in German. However, Kafka didn't use particularly complicated language, rather it's the ideas that are complicated - in German or English! So the words aren't the problem. The problem is what lies behind the words, and that is sometimes strange and complicated. Luckily there are some helpful websites to help the reader understand Kafka:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11503
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-castle-1

Tanka

On One Deep Breath this week we are asked to write a tanka. A tanka is a Japanese poetic form often written in the form of five lines with syllable counts of 5.7.5.7.7 though as with haiku the syllable count doesn't need to be strictly followed, though short, long, short, long long is to be preferred. Tanka often link the natural world with personal emotional reflections. This is only the second ever tanka I've written:

the shortening days

and long gloomy autumn nights

hibernation

I snuggle under blankets

to write poetry all day.

Haiku - solitude

This week's prompt on One Deep Breath is Solitude. This is my haiku:

snow in the churchyard
behind a wrought iron gate –
woman in black.