Crossed on the ferry at Tsukinowa to the post town of Se-no-ue to see the ruins that were Sato Shoji’s house, beyond town to the left, near the mountains. We were told to look at Saba Moor in Iizuka, and we eventually came to Maru Hill where the castle ruins lay. Seeing the main gate sundered, the ancient temple nearby, seeing all the family graves, my eyes glazed with tears…
Sword, chest and wind-carp
all proudly displayed
on Boys’ Festival Day
Basho, “Narrow Road to the Interior,” translated by Sam Hamil, The Essential Basho, pg. 11-12
Witnessing Gettysburg
You come upon site after site along the battlefield. Devil’s Den. The Wheat Field. The Peach Orchard. The woods where the Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine held the line with fixed bayonets. How can you wrap your mind around the carnage?
You see the Monument to the fallen, the Eternal Flame, and the cemetary where Abraham Lincoln gave his brief remarks–the Gettysburg Address.
How can your eyes remain dry?
Picket’s charge
blood-soaked ground succeeded
by summer grass
for dverse Poets’ Meet the Bar by changing yourย perspective (pubtended by Bjorn)
The pub is open! Come join us!
Frank J. Tassone 
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