seen from India
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Morocco
seen from United States
seen from India
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Mexico
seen from China
seen from Oman
seen from China
seen from Germany
Robert Okaji: Knowing What I Now Know
I would pause at the door,turn around as if to soothethe stray bits of myselfthat have flaked awayinto a collageof awkward posesand misspent wordslodged between cracksin yesterday’s flagstone.I would confess,light votives, harvest basil,pour water. Apologizefor my inabilitiesand distinct angers,learn to extinguishflame and sputtering embers before they flare.I would speak to the living,praise the…
Robert Okaji: The Continuing
So much growth while withering.The body attacks itself, realizes the futilityin compensation, as the spirit expandsover the horizon. I am old, and yet…Pinecones linger. The neighbor’s dogpees on our shared fence. Yesterday’sloss fades in the promise of another dawn,sacraments in birdsong, in car exhaustand friendly chatter. There is joy to find, to break into shareable pieces, and scatter…
Robert Okaji: Nothing of Heaven
Or everything. This is always the dilemma.Seeing the lily. Watching millet grow,and the juvenile cowbird with uplifted wings and open mouth begging the blackbirdfor food. One day it will recognize the call of its own kind, but today red epauletssignify comfort. How must we interpret such change, feelings sorted and filed into separate chambers, like people herded into showers, like bullets in the…
Robert Okaji: Dream Score
—After “Mood for a Day”Starlings everywhere.In the street, on the snow. On the wires.Darkening the staff of this dream’s musical scorein eighth and sixteenth notes. So quick, fluid.I empty my mother’s ashtray of its treasures—various picks, the broken watch, a mandolin bridge,that lock of my wife’s hair—then peer through the amberglass at a distorted day. What looks back at me?Another afternoon…
Ghazal of the Birds / Robert Okaji
https://robertokaji.com/
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Until
This face looking back at me never lies. I feel as if I've cheated, drawn the winning ticket, passed the exam without suffering through classes and boring soliloquies. Then I see the sagging jowls, the dark circles, those lines—so many of them— marking time and various scars invisible to the unaided eye. When death failed to claim me, I inhaled the ecstatic fumes of second chances, faked my way through another sixteen months of drudgery before pulling the plug. Now, seven years later, a thousand miles to the north, I study you lying behind me in bed, unaware of my gaze, of the power you possess even asleep, and I wonder how to retain this minute, these days and all that will unwind so slowly, so quickly, inevitably, until.
Robert Okaji
Flute (Ro)
Today’s piece was inspired after reading Robert Okaji’s wonderful poem “Ro”, please go and visit his fantastic poetry site by clicking on this link >> https://robertokaji.com/2022/11/11/ro-5/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.Feature Image Above: With the kind permission…
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We Do What We Must / Robert Okaji
We Do What We Must / Robert Okaji
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