Cat's Eye

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Concentric rings in the planetary nebula NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula): Hubble Space telescope image by ESA, NASA, HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA, 2004 (NASA)

what is that bright constellation
seen in the western sky
tonight, brilliant in virginal late
cold deep cobalt above bay's
twinkling distant lights, the red
blinking signal of Coit Tower

infinite specific difference within
infinite overall sameness, as vision
present within its absence, the vivid
diatomic or bioluminescent
living phosphorescence
in the cat gods' eyes

Domestic cat: photo by Foglia8519, 2010



White kitten with heterochromatic eyes: photo by Fabian Bolliger, 2005



Closeup of a cat's eye: photo by Zakabog, 2005

Refraction

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Fishing boats at Choshi in Shimosa: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) from the series One Thousand Pictures of the Ocean, c. 1833-1834 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Caught up in the Great Wave
for a little while

you can have the moment, but then
it turns

here is the crest
here the refraction

it turns, you can have the moment
again, but not the same

the wave breaks back
the carp can't leap back up the falls

Carp leaping up a cascade: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), n.d.

Kohada Koheiji: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) from the series One Hundred Stories, c. 1831-1832 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Ono Falls on the Kiso Kaido Road: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) from the series Tour of the Waterfalls in Various Provinces, c.1833 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Yōrō waterfall in Mino Province: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), from the series Visiting famous waterfalls of Japan, between 1790-1840 (Library of Congress)



Kirifuri Falls at Mount Kurokami in Shimosuke: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), from the series Visiting famous waterfalls of Japan), between 1790-1840 (Library of Congress)

The Great Wave off Kanagawa: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, c. 1830-32 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Certain Domestic Cats of Japan, 1720-1878

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Japanese bobtail cat, domestic: Kano (?), c. 1878 (Library of Congress)

For you fleas too,
The night must be long,
It must be lonely.

-- Issa (1763-1828), translated by Reginald Horace Blyth (1889-1964)

Domestic cat: Kano (?), c. 1878 (Library of Congress)



Asakusa ricefields and Torinomachi Festival, with cat sitting on wall where the sliding panels have been opened, watching the festival procession in the rice paddies nearby, view of Mount Fuji in the distance: Andö Hiroshige, (1797-1858), 1857 (Library of Congress)



A man engaged in metalwork appears to be melting statues to reuse the metal, with a kitten next to his left leg: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), between 1790-1840 (Library of Congress)



Domestic cat nursing kittens: Tachibana Morikuni (1679-1748), c. 1720 (Library of Congress)



Cat with black markings on its fur and a fragrant rose mallow: Tachibana Morikuni (1679-1748), c. 1720 (Library of Congress)



Woman seated on a bench reading a letter, one end of which a cat is playing with from under the bench: Torii Kiyomitsu, (1735-1785), between 1757-1783 (Library of Congress)



Woman, wearing kimono design identifying her as Gyöja Bushö, holding a toy on a string, playing with a cat: Kubo Shunman (1757-1820), between 1804-1818 (Library of Congress)



Young lady holding a cat: Eisen Ikeda (1790-1848), between 1843-1846 (Library of Congress)

The other day I went to see Dr. Suzuki, who is now, as you know, 93 years old. I asked him a question, holding a cat in my arms, "Which is more important, to be fond of cats (that is, to write haiku) or to understand Zen?" He answered, "They are one and the same thing", and I said to him, "You have passed your examination." But I did not really think so. To be fond of cats and to understand Zen are equally important because they are the same thing. Yes, this is so, but at the same time, what is more important is to be fond of cats.

R.H. Blyth to James W. Hackett, April 1964

A cat cleaning its claws: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), between 1830-1850 (Library of Congress)

Water Mill, Mist and Fog, Evening

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Water mill, with mist and fog, evening, Rosenmühle, on the river Haller, Lower Saxony, Germany: photo by Michael Gäbler, 2008

While everything external
dies away in the far off
echo of the soul
still there’s a mill wheel turning

it is like a good
kind of tiredness in
the moment before sleep
by some distant stream

a note of peace
in a life which
will never be peaceful
as the daylight fades

the dream disintegrates
but the shadow holds
no power
over what’s about to happen

Volcanic Ash Dunes of Tarvurvur, Papua New Guinea: photo by tarotastic, 2009

Joseph Ceravolo: Dusk

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Jersey Tiger Moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria): photo by 2+2=4. Probably, 2009

Before the dusk grows deeper
Now comes a little moth dressed in

rose pink, wings bordered with yellow. Now
a tiger moth, now..another..and another...another

Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobeae), Adult showing hindwings, the Netherlands: photo by JMuiden, 2006

Tiger Moth (Callimorpha dominula), Belgian High Ardennes: photo by James K. Lindsey, 2004

Scarlet Tiger Moth (Callimorpha dominula), Canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland: photo by Jeffdelonge, 2005

Joseph Ceravolo: Dusk, from Spring in This World of Poor Mutts, 1968

Basho's Frog

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Common Water Frog (Rana esculenta): photo by Holger Gröschl, 2003

古池や
蛙飛び込む
水の音

The old pond:
A frog jumps in,—
The sound of the water.

Birthplace of Basho Matsuo, Iga Province, Japan: photo by Ultratornio, 2005

Basho (1644-1694): frog haiku, translated by Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964)

Robert Creeley: The Rain

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Waterfall in the Rosenlaui ravine, Switzerland: photo by McIntosh Natura, 2007

All night the sound had
come back again,
and again falls
this quiet, persistent rain.

What am I to myself
that must be remembered,
insisted upon
so often? Is it

that never the ease,
even the hardness,
of rain falling
will have for me

something other than this,
something not so insistent—
am I to be locked in this
final uneasiness.

Love, if you love me,
lie next to me.
Be for me, like rain,
the getting out

of the tiredness, the fatuousness, the semi-
lust of intentional indifference.
Be wet
with a decent happiness.

Upper Lehman Creek, Great Basin National Park, Nevada: photo by Wing-Chi Poon, 2006

Robert Creeley: The Rain, from For Love, 1960