Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto 2024

1

 
holy terrors
promenading in costumes
Halloween memories


2

crow conference
in the trees
pandemonium



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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto 2024

1

wind
blowing
silence



2
red leaves
everywhere
a masterpiece



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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto 2024


1

birdsongs
chainsaws
all in the mix

2

today
all is painted yellow
yellow leaves
yellow chrysanthemums
yellow sun
yellow truck
yellow taxi
yellow submarine

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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto 2024


Flock of wrens    foraging poetry

Marie Bortolotto Artist 2024


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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto 2024


friendly dogs barking
wake up!



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Marie Bortolotto 2024

Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto 2024


Myriads of leaves falling from the sky   raindrops


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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto

The decay of autumn roses   one more blooms

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Tanka
by Otagaki Rengetsu (1791- 1875)

In a mountain village
alone, gazing at the moon...
To whom I might write
“A beautiful evening!”
then await... there is no one.

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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto


leaf blowers  
whatever happened to the art of raking?




soon, trees bare their branches    winter's wrath


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Marie Bortolotto 2024

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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto

walking alone
where are my cat friends?



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Marie Bortolotto Digital Art

Free Verse Haiku
Taneda Santoka (1882-1940)
from Santoka :: Grass and Tree Cairn
Translations by Hiroaki Sato

Taneda Santoka was a Japanese haiku poet
who specialized in free verse haiku during
the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

This the tooth that came out just like that
Horori to nuketa ha de wa aru

Cold clouds hurry
Samui kumo ga isogu

My hometown’s distant tree buds
Furusato wa toukushite ki no me

Thump on my hat was a camellia
Kasa e pottori tsubaki datta

The moon bright I go home
Tsuki ga akarukute kaeru

Clutching a balloon that wants to fly into the blue sky child on my back
Aozora ni tobitaki fuusen o shikato motsu sena no ko yo

Poetic Sketches
Free Verse Haiku by Marie Bortolotto 2024


autumn storm --
petrified roses tremble
in the wind


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Tanka
by Otagaki Rengetsu (1791- 1875) 

1/

Lines
in the twilight mist
where they go I cannot see
I envy the wild geese
only their voices trailing behind

2/

The mountain-going robes
of a priest
soaked through
in the pine wind amid these peaks --
a voice in the mist.

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Poetic Sketches
Marie Bortolotto

1/

after

the

storm

 black-robed -- crucifix hanging

the

Russian

Orthodox

priest

inspects

his

church

property

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Poetic Sketch
by Marie Bortolotto

oh, this rainy
red-soaked
heart of mine
relinquishes
fallen leaves
to the sullen
autumn wind!

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Poetic Sketch
by Marie Bortolotto

guarded heart --
a siege of rain
disarms me

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The Garden Of Poetry
by Marie Bortolotto 2024

Let me share a secret --
to enter the garden of poetry, avoid haste
or straying from the path, grasping
                        every eye-catching appearance
                                            that beguiles you.

Which do you choose;
           this one or that one?

Don't be fooled.
Let go of petty hankerings.
           You must learn to slow down, linger,
                        fall in love with the world, again, and again.

 
The way in is not through your eyes, but ears.

Listen! Wait!
For ripening speech, still, holy on the vine;
           for muted utterances to sprout under your feet
                        from the heart of existence.


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Poetic Utterances
by Marie Bortolotto

1/

your last breath
doesn't exist --
so you can relax
and breath now


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Poetic Utterances.

1/

It’s okay to breathe
shallowly to understand
how your heart works.

excerpt from “Somewhere in the Looming Fear”
by ANNE CECELIA HOLMES

2/

The future is a rumour like the past.
The new anxiety supplants the old anxiety.

excerpt from “Nebraska”
by MICHAEL DUMANIS

Art by Marie Bortolotto

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Poetic Sketch
by Marie Bortolotto

1/

underfoot --
faded voices
of dead leaves

 

2/

construction site --
the pink Chinese Church is resurrected

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Poetic Sketch
by Marie Bortolotto

October sunshine!
walking through a leaf storm

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Poetic Sketch
by Marie Bortolotto


ruffled crow
on a stop sign --
red alert!


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Poetic Sketch
Marie Bortolotto

a black crow keeps watch
atop
the pink Chinese Church

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Short Verses
by Marie Bortolotto

1/

fleeting moment --
I release my grasp
as
a
dead
leaf
falls
to
the
ground

2/

an old couple shuffle
along the path
with heavy footsteps
a stroke of insight
lightens my heart

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Short Verse
by Marie Bortolotto

autumn eve
yellowed leaves fall
this way and that
scattered thoughts
in the wind

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" Poetry is the way to live with a true and honest heart."

- Ozawa Roan (1723 - 1801) from Unsung Heroes of  Old Japan
  written by Isola Michifumi

Ozawa Roan was a waka poet and scholar of Japanese classical
literature, who lived during the mid-Edo Period

Art - Marie Bortolotto

Short Verses

1/

Reflecting on this fleeting
world
makes me sad --
like rain from the sky
my tears falling

2/

How enviable
true to their hearts
they bloom
such fleetingly, gracefully
falling cherry blossoms


~ Rengetsu, Japanese Artist, Poet, Nun (1791 - 1875)

Art by Marie Bortolotto