“We play at paste,
Till qualified for pearl,
Then drop the paste,
And deem ourself a fool.
The shapes, though, were similar,
And our new hands
Learned gem-tactics
Practising sands.”

-Emily Dickinson.

John Lennon's Imagine was spot on
His lyrics need to be the way we live now and forever
The Pandemic has been challenging but has moments we need to embrace
Neil Diamond's lyric of Used to bes don't count anymore they just lie on the floor til we sweep them away should give us the answers
We talk of respect and kindness
Do it and show it in your actions
How about being about it and put that message into action?
Stop talking the talk
Change is the one constant like it or  not
This is not generational thinking it is carefully taught like an old song tells
Here is the way it should go now
You have got to be carefully taught before its too late
Not to hate all the people your relatives hate
It has to be drummed in your dear little ear
Hate is a four letter word
Stop and think of all the mixed messages the world has brought to you no matter their source
Stop Imagining before it is too late
It is up to all of us because we were never really in it together but now it is inevitable
History repeats itself until we finally learn and improve our world

C@rainbowchaser2020

To a Daughter More Precious than Gems
by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume (c. 700-750)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Heaven's cold dew has fallen
and thus another season arrives.
Oh, my child living so far away,
do you pine for me as I do for you?

I have trusted my jewel to the gem-guard;
now there's nothing to do, my pillow,
but for the two of us to sleep together!

I cherished you, my darling,
as the Sea God his treasury's pearls.
But you are pledged to your husband
(such is the way of the world)
and torn from me like a blossom.

I left you for faraway Koshi;
since then your lovely eyebrows
curving like distant waves
ever linger in my eyes.

My heart is as unsteady as a rocking boat;
besieged by such longing I weaken with age
and come close to breaking.

If I could have prophesied such longing,
I would have stayed with you,
gazing on you constantly
as into a shining mirror.

I gaze out over the fields of Tadaka
seeing the cranes that cry there incessantly:
such is my longing for you.

Oh my child,
who loved me so helplessly
like bird hovering over shallow river rapids!

Dear child, my daughter, who stood
sadly pensive by the gate,
even though I was leaving for a friendly estate,
I think of you day and night
and my body has become thin,
my sleeves tear-stained with weeping.

If I must long for you so wretchedly,
how can I remain these many months
here at this dismal old farm?

Because you ache for me so intently,
your sad thoughts all confused
like the disheveled tangles of your morning hair,
I see you, dear child, in my dreams.

Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume (c. 700-750) was an important ancient Japanese poet. She had 79 poems in Manyoshu ("Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves"), the first major anthology of classical Japanese poetry, mostly waka. The compiler of the anthology was Otomo no Yakamochi (c. 718-785). Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume was his aunt, tutor and poetic mentor. In the first stanza, Lady Otomo has left her children in Nara, possibly to visit her brother. In the second stanza, it is believed that the jewel is Lady Otomo's daughter and that she has been trusted to the care of her husband. As for the closing stanza, according to the notes of the Manyoshu, it was popularly believed that a person would appear in the dreams of the one for whom he/she yearned. Keywords/Tags: Otomo, Sakanoue, Iratsume, Japanese, translation, mother, daughter, precious, gems, gem, jewels, jewel, pearls, pearl, Koshi, Tadaka

You are infinite,
like the universe.
Very mysterious and unexplored.
I find solace being around you.
Yet I cannot unravel much about you.
It's like you are infinite,
like the universe.
You pour out drinks for everyone,
but bottle up your emotions.
Yet your charm makes me stay on for a little longer.
You are my universe.

It's silent
screams of delight.
It's hidden
blushes behind a hair swipe;

It's wanting
to always get it right.
It's having
not to think twice.

Loving you

It's like a test -
It's like
the breath
before you roll the dice;

Why can't I even
think of you
without my chest
getting tight?

Loving you is pressure.

Will my love even suffice?

she was the gem
that shined bright
in your eyes;
but today,
you compared
her with trash

one man's trash,
is another man's
treasure;
perhaps you've
not seen her value,
or you're never a
lapidary to begin with