Akizuki

by Joe Helmick

Once a year the cherry blossoms burst into view
lining the promenades and chic avenues.
All the while people stroll and exclaim
how Nature in her wonder endures such fame.

With your girl hand in hand, sashay to and fro
over bridges where gurgling brooks and streams do flow,
and the trunks of the trees are covered with moss
soft and thick like velvet deep green in a gloss.

And the petals on the flowers stand out anew
in a twilight of evening the sun sets into
the mountains of shadows tall and bold
keeping guard o’re the village where sakura are told

to be the most grand and vintage all around,
form a tunnel the branches with lanterns are bound.

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The sonnets Joe has submitted were all composed in and around Fukuoka Japan during his sojourn there as an English teacher in the 1990’s. He has also taught English in the remote mountains of Jeongseon Korea for 5 years and recently 1 year teaching in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.

His hobbies are hatha (Sanskrit for Sun ha, and Moon tha) yoga, vegan-vegetarian cuisine, and both landscape and figure drawing. Travelling to archaeological sites in Asia and Europe for the purpose of creating a drawing portfolio, bicycle touring, refining his singer-songwriter persona for performance, and mastering Japanese language are some
of his recent interests and goals.

Joe is an eccentric type person who has had an exhilarating out-of-body experience (In a dream to awaken) and prefers a bohemian lifestyle to one of convention. Now in the USA, he would like to expand his circle of friends who share common interests and values such as creativity, adventure, open minded, healthy vegetarian lifestyle, and athletic fitness.