Another Painting

Grand Prize, HSA Renku Competition, 1996
Nijuin, Nassau, NY

Ion Codrescu
John Stevenson

Judges: Dee Evetts and Jean Jorgensen

* * *

jo

first snow—
they put another painting
in the living room

common weeds
encased in ice

lifting the stone
its pattern
on the ground

her hair in curlers
reading a novel


ha

harvest moon
counting each car
of the train

waiting for a lover
the Milky Way

geese
just two of them
this time

Beethoven quartet
softly heard

at the bottom
of the bottle
dark sediments

through the window
smell of plum brandy

chipmunks
racing around
garbage cans

for a while the moon
in the swimming pool

long story
the pasta
gets overcooked

the Marilyn cards
out of shelf

a bear’s
mouthful
of salmon eggs

fixing the walls
of the cabin


kyu

over the roof
the smokes goes
straight up

melt off meanders
through a parking lot

in the distance
blossoming orchard
and then the village

a warm breeze
turns the weather vane