It’s not a busy place, the lost poem depository.
Sheltered in a mulberry grove and made up of thatch and bamboo
it’s always open.
When snow perches on bamboo stalks,
rain basins in cassia leaves,
willows sweep away stray maple leaves
and sunlight streams in leaf way passages,
it remains open,
seeing two visitors everyday – at 10 and 2 –
one repeat and one unique
both asking for the same thing – always directed at the old man –
sat behind the cassia desk in beard and rags –
have you seen my poem?
And, as always, he shows them outback
to the garden
with the pond inhabited by two egrets and five catfish
with the bamboo thicket where the gibbons swing
and the criss crossed grass
where the lost poems
idle and spin, sit and gallop, glide and idle.
And, as always the repeat visitor finds what they misplaced
and the rookie does not
and then coming back the next day at 10
rags and beard behind the cassia table
rises and takes them outback to show them whats new
(and inevitably theirs) and then patiently waits for the 2 o’clock
in the lost poem depository.
~~~
If you have lost poems, I hope you find them.
love, love the images in this. depth & beauty & tranquility. 🙂
Thank you for the comment.
I was going for those so it’s nice to see that come out.
Oh wow. Wow I feel like I really needed this.
I try to help if I can.
Really, hope things are good with you. I’d be upset if they weren’t.
They’re better, thanks 🙂
The late Miles Kington invented an organisation called “The Sock Exchange” which, he claimed, matched single socks. Maybe there should be a Couplet Exchange so poets who have mislaid a matching line can find a suitable one?
That would be nice. Probably would be some of my stuff there. Would be nice for it to have a home.
This is a lovely notion–I like the gibbons, and I’m so glad the repeat visitor gets rewarded. Very nice. One question I have is whether you want outback as one word–it brings up Australia to me! (Which is okay.) K.
I’ll be changing outback, since I got a similar comment on a forum.
And thanks for noticing the repeat visitor. I enjoyed writing that bit.
Excellent. So haiku in setting. Ah … I really enjoyed this. So much, I’m getting a cup of coffee and reading it again. 😀
I did aim for some Eastern imagery in this. So it’s nice to see it noticed.
And I hope your coffee was nice. Good coffee be a good thing.
A place I’d like to find-the lost poem depository! Lovely…
Thank you for the comment.
I’m convinced it’s out there somewhere. the lost poems have to go somewhere.
I deeply enjoyed this one. Reading the series backwards it become interesting. There’s a humanity to the kind poems who are not lost, but patiently waiting. It’s the poet that’s lost, no?
I don’t know when this series came about, but they were fun to write.
I don’t know where poems go, or if they hang around. But it would be nice if they do. Cause us poets can be the forgetful types. Plenty of idea’s I’ve left around.
And we get lost. Endless redrafts are the only way out. So we never get out. Just keep on writing.
haha…see..now i know where all the lost poems go…and sounds like they’re having fun..smiles..LOVED it!!!
Oh – that second stanza is alive and brimming with poetic ambience 🙂
oh I love this…this sweet little phrase struck a chord with me today: “sunlight streams in leaf way passages”
smiles…this is fantastical…a fairy tale…to all our lost poems…in the lost n found…or maybe the pound…no in the lost poem depository…i would be glad that someone found one and thought enough to leave it there…smiles.
This is quite creative. I never thought of poems as being lost, but now that you mention it there are a few that I’ve written in my head late at night after crawling into bed, and too tired to get up and write them down I have thought, “I’ll remember it in the morning.” But then I haven’t. Perhaps they are at the depository. 😉 Peace, Linda
One of my favorites this week so far. The idea here is great. There are truly lost poems everywhere, literally and in metaphor. The objects you incorporate here are amazing, from nature to animals, done so well. Really enjoyed. thanks
I think this is one of my favorites of your work. So original, and the nature images are quite lovely. A treat to read…with those visuals, and in an odd way, hopeful…Love it!
It’s a place I really should visit , as so many of my lost ones are dying on the vine somewhere… And this piece does make me wonder why I seldom visit them… Good write
Oh this sounds like a lovely place to visit to retrieve lost poems – some are saved on file as they await a suitable ending…
Anna :o]
This reminded me of the lost books in the book Shadow of the Wind…. Nicely done.