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“Easy does it” … even as we mourn the people we love and are saddened by some of the ways of the world.

I’m thinking of all the people I lost last year. It reminds me of a custom in some places – Japan, China, Korea – to write death poems because so often I wish I had a little handwritten note to treasure among the memories, something emblematic of each cherished being. It’s a downside to the computer age. Our boxes of notes and letters have grown quite lean.

My impression is that the death poems tradition was mostly honored among Buddhist monks and Japanese Samurai. The three classic forms were haiku, waka and kanshi. The gentle death poem that follows is a famous one by Yaitsu, but thus far I have been unable to find much information about him.

paradise ~
i see flowers
from the cottage where i lie

– Yiatsu

Eternal memory. Eternal memory. Grant to your servants, O Lord, blessed repose and eternal memory.

In the spirit of caritas/chesed/حنان ناشئ عن الحب/metta…Love!

most especially for those lights: Brian, Lesley and Ralph … and always ,though they died years ago, for Mom, Daddy, Terry, Chris, Aunt Yvonne, Aunt Julie, Kirby, Sidto and all the other family and our friends who have been released by Time into Eternity.

© 2017, photograph, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

♥

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4 Comments

  1. when our spark goes out
    where to? does it then diffuse,
    or saturate?

    so hard to believe
    it’s a robinwilliamsless
    world. I remember when

    he quoted shakespeare
    to summon those flights of angels
    for his friend chris reeve.

    there are absent friends
    artists in residence in
    some of our meme-scapes.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Thank you!