Kinda like Haiku

One of our 'regulars' at the Dojo is Mr. John Barber, also known as "Grandpa". He brings his granddaughter Gillian to Aikido classes every Wednesday, and sometimes on Saturdays, too.

He is a wise man, who gladly shares his extensive knowledge on the Eastern cultures and life in general.

From time to time he hands me a gift, a handful of poems. He calls them "Kinda like Haiku". They touch and lift my heart.


Here are some of them:

*
Trees in bright white bend
to a wind that is not there.
Calm feeling again

*
Children laugh and play;
incense lingers in the air.
Demons flee away







*
Words are but a screen.
Feet themselves must find signs
to the path of life

*
Dojo kokoro:
quiet empty swift bamboo
In black hakama.








*
Patient tatami
Quietly lies in dojo
for feet to return.







*
Bouncing in the air,
falling on the tatami,
An obi comes loose.

*
Hakama shadows
Quietly spin in soft waves
On the tatami

*
Rise and fall again
Body and mind join as one
Fall and rise again