She found and sold her soul
\nin Osaka while watching the
\nGeisha obi tied tight
\nMiles of fabric
\nDraping the ground
\nBeneath the cherry tree
\nJust a short distance from
\nThe tea house
\nPouring heat into the hearts
\nOf men
\nWith dashing eyes
\nflitting from breast to neck
\nnoting the jasmine of her hair
\ngathered in Tsuyoshi Shimada
\nA flirt of a smile, a gift
\nIn return.
\nHe whispers to her over
\na steaming cup
\nBegging to meet
\nbeneath the cherry tree.
\nIntellect-a stimulation that
\nGoes beyond the eyes
\nAnd lingers in the mind
\npours into the soul
\nand drinks with lusty fervor.
\nQuick wit and lofty charm
\nPour over leaves
\nThe scent of vanilla and rose
\nLingering beneath
\nMustached noses
\nThat whisper forever
\nWith bearded lips against
\nThe flesh of neck
\nBeneath the cherry tree
\nWhere they meet
\nIn secret
\nAnd talk of new beginnings
\nWith he as her Dan\u2019na
\nThe man that chooses the wife
\nNot one chosen for
\nThe sake of duty, name, and fortune.
\nA perfect match begins in the heart
\nAnd for geisha, they aren\u2019t to have one
\nSeparated through the mask of white
\nOf charcoal lines about the eyes
\nAnd red as cupid\u2019s arrow
\nShot upon the colored lips-
\nShe falls in a love forbidden
\nAs suitors line her pocket
\nThe okiya brandishes a debt
\nTo clear-nenki
\nfor making her who she’d become
\nTo love geisha is to admire beauty
\nAn artwork in motion
\nOne cannot keep the other true
\nForever
\ndespite her new beginning
\nand his love professed
\ntheir lives of duty come first
\nAnd sadly, he\u2019d be her last
\nBeneath the cherry tree. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She found and sold her soul in Osaka while watching the Geisha obi tied tight Miles of fabric Draping the ground Beneath the cherry tree Just a short distance from The tea house Pouring heat into the hearts Of men With dashing eyes flitting from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4125,4660,1430,2158,4656,4657,4658,4150,4659,4599],"class_list":["post-99661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2021-poetry-marathon","tag-cherry-tree","tag-forbidden-love","tag-full-marathon","tag-geisha","tag-japanese-cherry-tree","tag-okiya","tag-poetry-marathon-2021","tag-tea-house","tag-true-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99661"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99860,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99661\/revisions\/99860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}