Last week, Cousin Mary invited responses to a brief haiku by Issa which seemed to describe the moment before something happens – or, at least that’s how it came across to me.
if it’s a bow
its string is pulled taut…
summer field弓と弦なら弓を引け夏の原
yumi [to] tsuru nara yumi wo hike natsu no hara
I loved archery as a kid/teen/collegiate person. My someday dream is to have enough property to safely shoot in my own backyard. I love the stillness required, the strength bound up in pulling back the weighted string, the skill in the aiming, waiting to be certain… and letting go.
a transformation
from stinging tension to flight
all is potential
Poetry Friday is hosted this week by the very busy Laura Salas! May this final month of summer – both fraught with tension and rife with possibility – fly us swiftly where we’re meant to go. Happy Weekend.
Love your take on this, Tanita. I didn’t know you were an archer! It was the only athletic thing in junior high that I enjoyed, but I didn’t continue with it.
This:
the stillness required,
the strength bound up in pulling back
the weighted string,
the skill in the aiming,
waiting to be certain…
and letting go
is also a poem. Bulls-eye!
Who knew you were/are an archer? Actually, I can see it in the way you write. The calm precision, the aim, the zingers you deliver straight to the center of the target.
Still living in the “stinging tension” of before-the-first-day-of-online-school, but feeling like I’m readier than ever to let the arrow fly.