Ro
When this note fades
will it join you in that place
above the sky
or below the waves
of the earth’s plump
body? Or will it
circle back, returning to
my lips and this
hollow day
to aspire again?
Note: Ro designates the fingering required to produce a particular note on the shakuhachi, the traditional Japanese bamboo flute. In this case, closing all holes.
O at the Edges 
And when this poem circles back, returning to my in-box on a day anticipated hollow, will it take my breath away? (Yes!)
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Thank you, Jazz. Maybe the next time it’ll come around on a less hollow day.
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So many of your poems invoke a wistfulness that hovers near pain. I appreciate the Japanese culture lessons.
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Thank you very much. I can’t say that the lessons are Japanese in nature, as they come from that in-between place, that not-quite one or the other sense of being. But then again, maybe they lean in that direction…
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I definitely lean Japanese. I am the worst at poetry right about now, but you draw me in with Japanese references. It may be your conceptualizations, the imagery. Ro on shakuhachi is the sound of every note covered. For me, that is the sound of full stop, like a ripple on water.
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I love the circular in this poem. Wonderful.
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Thanks very much, Ali.
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Perhaps a rhetorical note that simply ends where it began. A stone tossed from the shore, and ripples returning to that shore.
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It does seem to perpetuate itself…
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Inside the hollow
A note is borrowed
From yesterday’s mentor
“Return to today’s sender”
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Those notes often return. 🙂
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Yes … like echoes from the hills
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Hi Robert (again) , I have expanded on my poetic response above, and I was wondering if was ok to use your ‘Flute image’ in my proposed post/article
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Yes, of course!
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Thank you Robert .. I’ll post later tonight… your morning time
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It is a very interesting instrument. Nice poem. 🦋
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It is! Simple and maddening!
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such beautiful imagery!! ❣️
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Thanks very much, Cindy. The shakuhachi gets all the credit!
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You’re so welcome.. It’s good to have good pic prompts for sure but doesn’t take you place❣️
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It is indeed!
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