#poem, «The Silence of the Bay» (An Euro-Ku)

Brilliant are the bright black notes that fill the pentagram with the thrill of the allegretto and the fluid melody of the adagio, the andante, the largo,

and suspenseful is the beat of the snare, the cymbal or the tympany, and the double beats of the conga drum, the bongos or the tambourine,

but blessed is the silence that awakes me each morning when I rise to greet the sea…

C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera – 28 OCT 2024 – Valencia, Spain

NOTA BENE

Although I think you probably know what an Euro-Ku is, in case you don’t, I will tell you…

I invented the Euro-Ku in February 2022 to be able to fulfil my desires to write a Haiku. But when I realised what a Haiku is, I understood that being a Westerner, I had not the culture or the history of the great Japanese poets who specialise in Haiku. So, I decided to honour the style by manipulating it and the result was what I called the Euro-Ku, being that I, as a European, is writing it. I know that my good friend and fellow poet, Joni Caggiano, has written in the style, but being an American, her poems are Ameri-Ku. Both are the same as both are expressions of Westerners on something invented by Easterners…

The Euro-Ku (and Ameri-Ku as well) is composed of three verses, stanzas, paragraphs, however you want to classify them. But the idea has to be clearly, and logically, transferred from one verse to the next without floating off into space. Keep the poem concise, like a conversation. And there is no limits as to how many syllables you can use. The verses can be as long or as short as you need to make them to get your message across. The only other requirement is that there be an un-edited illustration of your creation as well, or for which you have the rights of publication.

So, you do these simple things and you have written an Euro- or Ameri-Ku…

CHEERS