SHIWA SHIWA

by Jill Lange

after

Shiwa Shiwa

by Yuko Kimora

Come here

I am the scarf you want to wear

indigo block not exactly squared

hand-stitched  to almost pinstripes

but so much more appealing

in texture and dimension.

A little wabi sabi here.

I know you

You are fond of wood block prints

and the color indigo.

You’re the type to consider

books by their cover and always

examine inside pages.

You really want to touch me.

But you love me anyway,

and just between us, the fox told me.

I also know you asked your haiku

master Japanese friend about the title

Shiwa Shiwa and she told you

wrinkle, like a wrinkled shirt,

left open any deeper meaning. Ha!

Won’t tell you how

but I knew you would be here,

and insisted my friend Yuko

a very fine artist

mark me NFS-

just to help you work on

your grasping issues.

Yuko Kimora, Artist:

Shiwa Shiwa means wrinkle wrinkle in Japanese.  My unique printmaking process was developed by experimenting with a traditional Japanese resist dye technique called shibori.

Paper is tightly wrapped around a pole and then the paper is compressed from top to bottom on the pole and pleated.  The pleats act as a resist when printed.  Either the pleats stay pleated or opened; as a result, striations, unique linear marks, are created in the paper.

Jill Lange, Poet:  Jill comes to poetry from a varied background in art, English and environmental education; interior design; technical writing and editing; and poverty law specializing in immigration.  These influences including a life-long connection with nature and ongoing sense of social justice can be seen peppering her work.  For a number of years she served on the editorial committee for “Tributaries, a journal of nature writing” published by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  Currently, she is focusing on short poems, primarily haiku, senryu and tanka. Her work has been published widely in the US and internationally both online and in print.

Please enjoy this video for Ekphrastacy August 2020 in Response to Evolution:

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