Saturday, April 25, 2015

Poem #24 for Poetry Month-Japanese Katauta



We are on the home stretch to bona fide Spring indeed! I listen to the weather reports and forecasts from the Peace River region and Whitehorse, cheer on the Kootenays and Saskatoon, clap for soaring summer numbers in Winnipeg, and on it goes. Meanwhile we are easing forward in our moderate if soggy climate, making the most of the dry days for outdoor work, using the gale force and monsoon weather to finesse the indoor projects on the go. 

Spring brings more travellers to Tofino and Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island and with the resorts and restaurants hiring for the busy season ahead, lots of novice surfers from Canada and other countries (shout out to Australia). I wrote this katauta after a particularly memorable search and rescue operation which happened early in my life as a lighthouse keeper.
  

Meanwhile the Japanese katauta is a three line poem: unrhymed but with a syllable count of 5 7 7. It's a little like the mondo in that the first line asks a question and the next two lines "answer" in a seemingly spontaneous and intuitive fashion. Lots of possibilities!
 
Search & Rescue Katauta

When do we give up?
Black wetsuit on black water
Just pray she is tough, floating




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