Balance
Navigating
by stars,
one ball
buried,
another
gathering,
the dung
beetle
straight-lines,
maintains
position,
forever
looking forward
and up.
O at the Edges
Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
O at the Edges 
Single-minded purpose?
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Food and procreation!
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“Food and procreation”
Saturday night in Nagoya,
I leave hungry and solo… 🙂
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Despair!
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Supremely and splendidly focused…😊 both dung beetle and words.
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Look down, look up. It’s amazing what you’ll find!
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I am also a gardener and yes…very surprising! I feel an affinity with this little dung beetle…
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“Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems….
When you know that my poems are not poems,
Then we can speak of poetry!”
– Ryōkan Taigu
This latest poem is so not a poem… and thus it is one of my favorite poems!
かつ!!
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Then my work is done. Or is just beginning.
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Whatever it was/is/ill be… I love it. The work should continue unabated…
… お願いします!!
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安部公房 Kobo Abe would have loved this!!! I love it, too.
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Thank you, Craig. Your kindness is much appreciated.
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Right on! Another Abe-sama fan! One of the reasons I studied Japanese as hard as I did was so I could try and read as much of The Ruined Map and Woman In The Dunes as I could! And lets not forget Mishima’s Decay Of The Angel. Nothing says ‘collapse’ like a sweaty tenbu!! すごい !!
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You picked some of the hardest to start off with!! You must be pretty すごい‼︎ I fell in love with Abe when I was in my teens. Love Teshigahara’s adaptations, too.
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Robert very profound poem,we all are doing the same act day in and day out:)
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I’m so pleased you see it that way, Suchetana. Thank you.
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🙂
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Gorgeous first photo to lead you into the poem 🙂
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Thank you, Raili. I wish I’d taken it – it’s from morguefile.com.
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Ah the dung beetle, I haven’t thought of them since I left my parents ranch in Texas.
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They are fascinating, aren’t they? By the way, spaghetti carbonara is one of my favorite dishes!
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They really are fascinating. I’m glad you like carbonara as much as I do. 🙂
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Truly wondrous the treasures this world has. Awesome shot!
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The treasures are everywhere!
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I know!! People just don’t see them!! How exciting to be a photographer and go hunting like we do. Or rather, what just seems to happen right in front of my nose. 🙂
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Beautiful Images and simple yet deeply inviting 1st picture…now to the scarab and it’s beauty as representing how life goes round in circles and cycles…even through the shit…life goes on and up and down and round! Thank you for these poetic words and beautiful Images!!! 😊
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Thank you, Jill. Much appreciated. I claim the words, but not the images, which are from morguefile.com.
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Welcome Robert, nice use of words, still a beautiful match and great piece!! 🙂
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I have never read such a wonderful ‘dung beetle based poem’ before! Just brilliant Robert!
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Thank you, B! Of course there aren’t many to compare it to. 🙂
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Navigating by starts, dungs beetles this triggered an instant thought of “the boat of Ra” . Fascinating to read what it evoked in others.
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I blame it all on the beetles! But not the Beatles.
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