Self-Portrait with Umeboshi
Our resemblance strengthens each day.
Reddened by sun and shiso,
seasoned with salt,
we preside, finding
comfort in failure. Or does
the subjugation of one’s flavor for another’s
define defeat? The bitter, the sour, the sweet
attract and repel
like lovers separated by distances
too subtle to see.
Filling space becomes the end.
What do you learn when you look through the glass?
Knowing my fate, I say fallen. I say earth.
Ah, simplicity! When I was a child my mother would occasionally serve rice balls in which a single mouth-puckering umeboshi rested at the center. These have long been a favorite, but I admit that umeboshi might be an acquired taste. Commonly called “pickled plums,” ume aren’t really plums but are more closely related to apricots. I cherish them.
“Self-Portrait with Umeboshi” first appeared in the Silver Birch Press Self-Portrait Series (August 2014), was included in the subsequent print anthology, Self-Portrait Poetry Collection, and also appears in my chapbook, If Your Matter Could Reform.
Music: “Senbazuru” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
O at the Edges 
Love umeboshi
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It is a particular delight!
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It staggers the tongue so!
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Merely thinking about it makes my mouth water.
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The art of returning…maybe we should ask Cher about that one!
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If anyone knows, Cher does. 🙂
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Like umeboshi there is a secret centre
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It’s sometimes difficult to find…
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Beautifully recited again Robert, and no slamming door to jolt me out my peaceful trance.
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No slamming door on this one, but no telling what will occur on the next. 😊
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a voice
of reason 🙂
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Even the humble umeboshi offers reason to get out of bed!
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Lovely and umeboshi sure does sound like a treat!
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I had two last night!
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simplicity through poetry can be hard to achieve. I have never tried umeboshi but now I want too. I recently tried my hand at putting my own interpretation to a Japanese okimono and an ink on paper painting by Sesshū Tōyō. How successful I was I’m not sure but it was a fun writing exercise. Thank you for this lovely poem and recording.
https://slideaways.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/okinomo/
https://slideaways.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/in-meditation/
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Thanks, Colin. Umeboshi may he an acquired taste. Your poems are lovely. Thanks for sharing them.
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