(redbubble.com:  The Egyptian Goddess Nut by Amanda Burns El Hassouri.)

Lady Nyo

When I first started writing poetry, I came across choka. This is a very early piece of poetry.  This poem was influenced by a painting by a dear friend, Nick Nicholson, in Canberra, Australia.

For those readers unfamiliar with  choka, it is a very early Japanese form of poetry: choka is called ‘long poem’.  It can get to 100 lines and still be in the form.  I haven’t written choka in years, and  forgot how good a form it is to ‘tell stories’. One basic form of choka is 5-7-5-7-5-7-7…or a variation on this.

Lady Nyo

–

The Goddess Nut

–

I am the Temple

of the Universe at night,

I am Goddess Nut

I spread my body over

the dark, silky sky

and the Sun is born from my

open mouth at dawn, each day.