Blinded Shinobi

solitary life instant

 

ink dark the figure

 

sheen of death glints the blade

Author's Note

This is partly from a glimpse at someone's avatar and partly because that person both studies Ninjutsu and is plagued by migraines so severe that they are unable to see outside and can see in the dark when a migraine hits them for up to two weeks at a time. They never cease to amaze me with what they do every single day.

Reviews

[Samuel Pennell]

Thi is amazing! I love it! Your poetry blows me away-it is beyond words! Your friend should take blood pressure medicine and avoid caffeine. That was my problem!

[Neverwhere]

He had a lot of stress going on in his life and I think that was part of the problem. I have very bad migraines, so I avoid certain foods and take an actual migraine med, ~shrugs~ It's hard to know what is going to work, right?

[Samuel Pennell]

Yeah, I had epic migrains. My doctor's blood pressure medicine and getting rid of caffeine did it, though. I'm migraine free!

[Samuel Pennell]

Maybe for another poem like it in a series, you could talk about "black silk fluttering in the dark." It seems to fit.

[Neverwhere]

So, what? You like the idea of threaded haikus?

[Samuel Pennell]

Yeah. It sounds good. Threaded Haikus could be good! Would they all be about a blinded ninja?

[Neverwhere]

That would be a little too Kurasawa for my tastes I think, ~the blind ronin turned ninja when he becomes blind, wanders the lonely roads of Japan in search of the nemesis who took him from his daiymo and left him to seek revenge, protecting helpless villagers from bandits and thieves while their less then noble landlords are away at the Capital waiting on the Shogun and trying to curry favor and watch the moon at night on verandas with lovely ladies with whom they have poetry contests from between screens for propriety and yet have romances with the self same ladies and leave them scented morning poems. But that life is not for the Blind Shinobi, he has a task, a pure purpose, revenge and the ending of his life in the end. Oh dear, that is a bit much.

[Samuel Pennell]

I hear you. I don't really like movies about blind guys. My biggest question is: "how do they see where they are going?" Ba-doom-boom! Oh! Is this microphone on? All kidding aside: if you're looking for a great Japanese movie, "Hara-kiri," the remake by Takashi Miike is excellent-incredible production design.That lends itself to poetry. Also, the series "Shigurui" is amazingly artistic, although brutally violent. it is more than manga cartoons, though-it is beautiful art.

Great synopsis of Kurosawa, though!

[Samuel Pennell]

Dark silk flutters through the night. A shadow slips into the great hall of the emperor. His mighty castle-fortress is breached by a single man.

A dark, unwelcome intruder.

With espionage and the instinct in his blood, he winds through the byzantine hallways of the castle, and slithers past watchful guards when they aren't watchful.

Now in the emperor's chamber. The steel blade of his katana springs from its sheath. His steel katana is brave, and the sheath is cowardly. The blade is light, yet heavy in his hand. Light breath is all he hears behind his mask. Quiet, controlled breathing. He creeps up behind the emperor, draws his sword back and.........