“Kabuki Moon” by Irina Moga
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Kabuki Moon” by Irina Moga.
Kabuki Moon
By Irina Moga
Snowflakes, once moreโ
their downward scattering
like floating feathers of wild geese.
And Iโm watching squirrel paw traces crossing
layers of hoarfrost,
as if describing a warrior clanโs fate
stylized on a kamon.
Where is the main keep of this vanishing castle,
high up, shaped by squalls,
its middle moat,
its white egret ghost, dispersed in a whorl of inked strokes?
There must be a woodblock at hand,
engraved with a reversed drawing,
ready to line up on rice paper
our climate of calligraphy and ice.
Stillnessโalways in an invasion of movement.
A formation of clouds
washing against a silvery kabuki moon
wraps up the day
with a whipping question mark.
Copyright ยฉ Irina Moga
Previously published in Writers in Kyoto.
Ontario-based Irina Moga is the author of several poetry collections. Quantum (DarkWinter Press, 2025) won the 2026 International Poetry prize of the Claudine de Tencin Academy (France). Variations sans palais (รditions L’Harmattan, Paris) won the 2022 literary prize “”Dina Sahyouni”” (France). Irina’s poems and short fiction have appeared in literary journals such as โCanadian Literature,”” “”carte blanche,”” โTNQ,โ and have been nominated for the SFPA Rhysling Award and Best of the Net.
Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!