FLOATING WORLD
by Taigu Ryōkan
If the sleeves
of my black robe
were more ample
I’d shelter everyone
in this floating world.
Photo: ”Gull feather & midnight sun, Nome, Alaska” from the postcard book: Sierra Club Nature in Close-Up. ©David Cavagnaro,1988, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find the 160-page book at Amazon here.
THE GULL
by Madeline Tiger
The huge grey gull
over the Jersey Turnpike
steely as Amtrak
crosses long above this
congestion, soars
toward the seashore
his wings waving slowly
His beak points beyond
our dull metal,
grey as we’ve made him
He’s traversing our lines
of bright cars, hot motors
rushed and stalled
in their own fumes
Far up he glides, he is
pointing to shining water,
to the waves that glisten –
ripples, breakers
with fierce bursting crests—
and when he squawks out there,
his cry leaves a whiteness
in the mind of the driver
…From The Earth Which is All by Madeline Tiger, 2008 (featured in the New York Times article “Selected Works by New Jersey Poets,” 1/2/2009)
Photo: “Seagulls at the Jersey Shore” by Amy Pospiech
FLOATING WORLD
Poem by Taigu Ryōkan
If the sleeves
of my black robe
were more ample
I’d shelter everyone
in this floating world.
Photo: ”Gull feather & midnight sun, Nome, Alaska” From the postcard book: Sierra Club Nature in Close-Up. ©David Cavagnaro,1988, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find the 160-page book at Amazon here.
Silver Birch Press 