The Moon of the Swaying Buds: A Spiritual Autobiography

by SHER GAIL

• ISBN13: 9781931223034
• ISBN10: 1931223033
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Q E D Pr

Table of Contents

Book One: Mountains
mutsuki: the moon in which the grains of rice are set to germinate
Like an Empty Chapel	3	(6)
Softly Blowing Bluestem	9	(6)
The Nails through His Limbs are Thick and Intrusive	15	(6)
Lodging Among the Roots	21	(6)
Nibbling the Dresden Grass	27	(9)
A Heifer Slobbers the Filthy Water	36	(9)
kisaragi: the moon of the swaying buds
Young Damselfly	45	(8)
Its Dappled Rib	53	(6)
Absorbing the Rain the Quagmire Sleeps	59	(7)
I Fully Accept the Beauty of an Elephant Eating a Boa Constrictor Being Mistaken for a Hat	66	(6)
Gilded Yellow Bars	72	(5)
I Am Very, Very Old	77	(6)
Smack of a Jaw, Slap of a Tail	83	(8)
In the Barber's Pole Gyrating	91	(6)
A Trefoil for St. Patrick	97	(8)
yayoi: the time of germination
Vapor Rising over Just-Stirring Birds	105	(6)
The Slender Stem - Flowerless	111	(5)
On Hunter's Soil	116	(9)
Abode of Snow	125	(7)
Fingering the Parched Riverbed	132	(4)
Your Rattling Wings	136	(6)
Fast Asleep in the Silver Birch	142	(7)
Book Two: Plains
uzuki: the moon of deutzia flowers
Monotony, Both Lugubrious and Strangely Crisp	149	(5)
Dark Wet Mud	154	(8)
For Our Sakes the Clams and Fish Give Themselves Unselfishly	162	(9)
Oh, All You Hungry Ghosts	171	(6)
I Dedicate this Stone	177	(7)
satsuki: the moon of transplanting
Tree Frogs - Their Rubbery Croak	184	(7)
The Seedling Draped in Moonlight	191	(8)
Deer-Chewed Tips	199	(8)
The Pudgy Moon	207	(8)
mina-zuki: the waterless moon
My Box-Shaped Room	215	(5)
Hoisting His Wings Toward the Trespasser	220	(6)
Teeny Sprouts Everywhere	226	(8)
Deaf to the Whistling Winter Birds	234	(11)
Book Three: Rivers
fumi-zuki: the moon of the heads of rice
Like the Wild Dogs who Help and Snap Defending a Random Street Corner	245	(7)
Even as You Screech Your Imminent Silence	252	(6)
Spearing the Sun as it Sets on the Pylons	258	(9)
ha-zuki: the moon in which the leaves fall
Two Fat Dove-Colored Birds Waddling Their Way Along a Eucalyptus Branch	267	(6)
Spitting Out the Queen	273	(6)
Arrested by a Flower in the Verdant Gulch	279	(5)
naga-tsuki: the moon in which the nights grow long
Chewing, Excreting ... Whorls of Leaves	284	(7)
Hey You -	291	(5)
The Simple Act of Toast-Eating	296	(9)
Book Four: Sky
kamina-zuki: the godless moon
Stinging Nettle Leaf	305	(5)
Out in a T-Shirt	310	(4)
Cakes Rising on the Stove	314	(6)
Painted Lady in the Understory's Half-Light	320	(4)
Caught by the Fiery Sun	324	(7)
An Orange-Black Heap Against the Gaslit Curb	331	(6)
shimo-tsuji: the hoar-frost moon
Re-entering the Mountain	337	(6)
Rain Bends the Umbel	343	(6)
Fragile Limbs Nubbed with Blossoms	349	(5)
Cooled Again by the Evening Breeze	354	(10)
Acre after Acre after Acre Explode In the Four Directions	364	(8)
Frogs Wait, Birds Wait, Snakes Wait	372	(5)
The Wintry Thicket Lifeless	377	(7)
Fat White Crub in its Beak	384	(5)
Lime-Green Sulphurs Mud-Puddle in the Canyon Dust	389	(6)
Gravid Nymph	395	(7)
shiwasu: the moon in which monks scurry from house to house reading the sutras
Under Ice, under Snow, a Gracile Wing	402	(12)
Glossary	414