Poem: "kū shiki"
This poem came out of yesterday's Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by dreamwriteremmy., who wanted to hear about two of the elements from Japanese Buddhism. For this topic I wanted an oriental form that would somehow incorporate two distinct parts. I found the katuata, which has several variations. (It occurred to me that this poem would look awesome with its title inkbrushed in Japanese down one side of a page and the English written out normally, and my brush skills are probably up to that... but I can't see the shiki symbol as more than an inkblot, which is what washed me out of Japanese in the first place.)
kū shiki
-- a katuata
Why is there a void?
Emptiness is a deep ache
Held in the heart of heaven.
There must be a void
if there is to be a space
left open for consciousness.