major cold coming
in my latest dream three fruits
snug in crisp dry leaves
rainclouds mist the pine forest
rooster crows again
drenched red and white with riches
New Year is budding
hale Toshigami-sama
grandmother kow tows
pale as her raw rice paper
lineage etched deep
red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido
families return
we tie tassel knots on gifts
paint resolutions
daruma never tumbles
affection in our goodbyes
Notes: month of affection – Mutsuki- traditional Japanese name for January.
Toshigama is the Year god. Tomorrow is the Shinto New Year in Japan – Oshogatsu (before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar). It is the year of the rooster – read traditions here in Three Friends of Winter
Gayle/Bodhirose invites us to meet at the bar with poetry in the Japanese Choka form
PoetryPix 