Kyoto approach

Love the processing.

Kyoto is on my bucket list.

You would love it, Pam. Tokyo was great, in a different way, but needed way more than the three days I was there. Thanks very much!

Beautifully done Diane,eddie,

Eddie, thanks very muh!

Ah, it must be Toyok. There's a beautiful Zen garden there.

I saw several Shinto shrines in a short time, but the most memorable was the Zen Fushimi Inari-Taisha in Kyoto (photos in an album here). A Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine in Tokyo, but there I mostly wandered around in the crowds and ate stuff. ; )

Awesome work!

This is something different, something very special.
YOUR ARE A CREATIVE MASTER. THIS IS TRULY IMPRESSIVE.

~ARTISTIC IMPRESSIONS~

Thanks so much!

Seated Figure

I
At Kyoto Station
take the number 50 bus
to the last stop.

II
Behind all the faces
in the streets
our shadows.

III
Prepare.
wear autumn colours,
carry Bashō ,
and bring a cushion.

IV
Hand over 500 yen at the gate,
say ‘domo arigatou,’
bow slightly,
look stern and serene.

V
At Roanji temple
clay walls, beams, curved eaves
ties and tiled roofs
frame the scene.

VI
Make your way
to the longed-for garden:
walk along the Hōjō
sit at the mid-point.

VII
Look from the veranda
across raked gravel
to the fifteen stones
grouped as islands.

VIII
Meditating, witness
a seated figure.
Focus
as the garden unfolds.

IX
Across the prefecture of Kyoto,
from the houses of Ukyo
and on hills of Sheffield
snow must fall.

X
This is
what you say it is,
And, yes,
it is.

XI
Smile.

XII
Snow settles on your quiet head,
snow is everywhere.

XIII
Now
brush these words away.

An old poem of mine. I've never been to Japan or the temple, but I like the idea of it.

Steve, that is magnificent! I would never guess you hadn't been there. "Look stern and serene" is accurate, how did you know? Arranging one's face in that way is necessary, unfamiliar and difficult for a westerner in Japan. Well, I managed the stern expression, because I'm like my grandmother, but serenity...I doubt I pulled that off. I felt serene for only 20 minutes, when I was alone in a tiny shrine, as in your poem. I was very much off balance in Japan. Africa was less foreign to me.

Thank you very much for your spectacular words.

I saw it in
www.ipernity.com/group/minimalist-realsubjects

This is one the nicest shots of this series to me

Andrea, nice to see you! Thank you, it happens to be my favorite, too.

...it's also my favorite of yours...