Friday 10 April 2015

I is for Inspirational... and Iconoclastic...and Ikkyu





Ikkyu (1394- 1481)


Ikkyu was a 15th century Japanese monk and poet, known for his eccentricity and Iconoclasm.  Read the poems that are the prompt for my post for letter I here.



Cat at the Opera 


In the Cairo Opera House
a cat stole in to listen to
the echoes of music and applause;
he got as far as the entrance hall.
The polished concierges knew
to wilt a cat with lifted brows,
with the merest flick of fingernail.


None of the patrons saw it done
as nothing untoward ensued
the slightest signals between doormen
the feline fobbed off and turned back
the whole of the performance smooth.
Sound ear, a certain depth of attention
not quite the prerogative of cats.


The wind paints a feathered tree
in subtle inks the world ignores;
cars on Ring Road, rapidity,
profit and loss, frenzied and strange
the complexity of failures.
Cats can’t have echoes just for free!
even if the sound’s beyond our range.




Should cats/pets be allowed into live performances? :)

What about young children?







Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2015





9 comments:

  1. I love your theme...and your poetry! It's making me want to get back into writing it myself! :) (And I even tried my hand at poetry, for my I post. It's not very good. But...I tried.)

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  2. Rocking theme :D I'll keep coming back to see what else you have in store for us...

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  3. Good point! If the kids can come in, so should the pets.

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  4. That was a fun poem. I don't think there's anything wrong with having cats in live performances. :)

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  5. Another great post! Thank you for this theme - I'm so enjoying it

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  6. lovely and soulful lines dear... :)

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  7. Absolutely bring the cats. They adore being included even if they don't show it.

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  8. Hi Nila - sadly the health aspects come in .. who knows what would happen .. we need to go back to Shakespeare's day and earth floors etc ..

    But I think a balance needs to be struck .. but I'd love a story of a cat visiting various venues and experiencing 'our world' ... and then them telling us about their experiences in our venues ...

    Cheers Hilary

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  9. Nice one. .. It is good to visit your blog and carry away information about poets I did not know before.

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