Paper Poetry Series: Wabi-Sabi: 1st Poem

Cracks in Our Sky

Beauty in Nature’s Imperfection: Wabi-Sabi

I feel God’s temperance when the sky breaks and not anger, but perhaps a loving restraint. A blink of my eyes and I barely catch a snapshot of a lone crack in the glass of our shaken snow globe.

like fiercely wrought slashes, without pencil leaving the page Or like multitudinous spinsters’ arms, stretched fingertip to fingertip — both up higher and conflicting with the dark, imitating their partnered stars: a crack, illuminated from the outside.

A crack, Mirroring an inch of a life-sized model earth’s equator but its circumferential perfection perverted by pieces of cloud charging down as bulbous pinpoints, striking the curved line of photons as unseen hands carry the stolen measure up.

And scarred hands Sew the abused into the sky before lightning is made alive by electricity, shocked never more than once.

And for those not looking A mighty lion’s roar, for jagged edges made anew rings like an Olympian caller throughout the walls, and runs up rib bones like the strumming of a viola.

And everyone slows as if they know Mighty and Invisible hands hover to hold. and frightening pictures are painted with words and painful stories are told of the hurt.

But To bare feet dancing and splashing along vertical streams of carefree giggling thunder is a reaction — not a roaring plea. A symbiotic love spawned from the reciprocal recognition of beauty.

And those not too old, but aged in prayer, nurturing rather than hating their thorns, the same who’ve let go by speaking what is known,

rest, in slumber, seamlessly through the storm.

~Written by Chloe P Hawes

Cracks in Our Sky is the first poem in a series of poems for Paper Poetry on the Japanese philosophy, or way of life, called Wabi-Sabi- Beauty in imperfection.

In my own words, at this moment, I define Wabi-Sabi as a choice to perceive as beautiful what our society deems in nature as imperfect or even transient. You will learn so much more about Wabi-Sabi as you join along this adventure with both Paper Poetry and me.

The next upcoming poem in the series is entitled Our Shaken Snow Globe, and I truly hope to see you there. Feel free to share your thoughts on Wabi-Sabi in the responses or elsewhere. The subject could make for just the precise conversation needed (albeit, among many other conversation topics) in our society today.

Editorial Note: Paper Poetry publication runs a themed poetry series every month. If you wish to be a part of Paper Poetry series, please email [email protected] with the subject line “Poetry Series writer request”.