weather

Afternoon tanka – Jan 27

impatient the air
slams a door, a saucer
certainty of downpours
evaporates before 
reaching this far

Image: Utagawa Hiroshige, Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo 1857. c/- Metropolitan Museum

And for music this morning, here’s Japanese composer Isao Tomita with Claire de Lune (Youtube). The whole album (sorry couldn’t find it on Youtube but there’s plenty of Tomita for you to enjoy) is pretty fab from the master of synths. (I remember my father bringing home one of Tomita’s LPs and we sat fascinated that all this music was without a single instrument being bowed or blown into or orchestra being conducted)

big wind tanka – 1 June

this gale scudding
euphony in drink tin timpani 
fallen fruit donging 
palm frond door slamming yes yes 
hurry yes — dissonant air(s)

Image: Katsushika Hokusai, A sudden gust of wind from the 36 views of Mt Fuji series (it’s actually called View 18, Ejiri in Suruga Province) c. 1830.

A single big-breath tanka for you. And linked to Dverse, the poets pub – where Bjorn is hosting some dissonance.

And for music this morning, Sufi Afghani music from the Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawwali Group. (YouTubers) – Maybe start with Oh Desolate Flame

“The group have been performing for more than thirty years and is one of the most highly regarded qawwali groups in Afghanistan. Featuring an array of instruments rarely heard outside their homeland, the Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawwali Group are part of a vibrant musical tradition that stretches back more than 700 years. Banned from performing under the Taliban reign, these musicians now publicly reunite to present the healing and spiritual power of qawwali music to Afghanistan and the world.”

(This album from 2013, I don’t know the status of the group since the Taliban regime was reinstated in Afghanistan in 2021)