Hotaru's Ninja Niche: Library::Most humble works of poetry presented for honoured readers' enjoyment with due respect to duty and tradition.

Library::Most humble works of poetry presented for honoured readers' enjoyment with due respect to duty and tradition.

This poem has five elegant stanzas of haiku. The honourable poet, Lin Po, composed it after respectfully inhuming the leader of a small merchant family in HungHung.

sneaking like tiger
along streets and through alleys
the town its jungle

knife at the ready
creeping slowly through the night
the ninja draws near

pink cherry blossom
life like full bloom of springtime
winter approaches

unknown to target
the ninja in the shadows
preparing to throw

a glint of steel
marks most honourable end
petals blow away

Popular before the haiku was the tanka. Tanka are composed of five lines of five, seven, five, seven, seven syllables.

The following traditional tanka was written by Flowering Tree.

Misty evening
The sound of raindrops falling
Echoes on the rooves
Like footsteps in the distance
Running from a contract closed

The poet, One Large Gong disrespects the traditional form of tanka by blending rhyme with it. He was considered to be somewhat a rebel during his youth when he composed this.

silently silken
in dark shadows ninjas wait
neither heard nor seen
until it is far too late
no trace of where they have been

This poem was quilled by Lon Hai Hippai, a rich and powerful silk merchant in Bes Pelargic. The poem describes his daily struggle with the ninja a rival merchant hired to inhume him. Many believe his flippant attitude, demonstrated in the poem, helped him survive numerous assassination attempts.

I see them in the dark
Circling like a shark
I wonder who it will be
The lady that brings me tea?
Perhaps my "loyal" scribe?
He's known to take a bribe
But skill I think he lacks
And looks awful dressed in black

Or maybe my bodyguard?
For him it would not be hard
As he's with me constantly
Alas, even when I pee
But no, I think not him
For he is somewhat dim

And a smart person is needed
For me to be defeated
For many a ninja has tried
But all of them have died

That I am now alive
Proves I have the will to survive
But one lucky shot
Will conclude the fiendish plot
To rob me of my life
And widow my beloved wife

So for now I will just write
And worry about death tonight

This haiku was written by Bubbling Brook, one of the first female ninja. Adept at painting as well as poetry, she also produced the picture that accompanies it;

knife like butterfly
yellow wings causing ripples
one throw changes all

             tt''              'ttt        
            ttitt'   `    `  ''ttit       
            tttitt'  `    `  'tttitt      
            tttit''  `   `  ''tttitt      
             tttitt''  ` `  ''tiitt       
             tttitt'''  `` ''tittt        
              tttitt''' `` ''ittt         
               tttit''''##'''ttit         
                titii'''##''itit          
               tttittiii##iittitt         
              tttttiitti##iitittt         
              tttiitttii##iitiitit        
               titttiiti##itittitt        
                 ttititi##tittitt t       
                   ttttt##ttttt    tt  t  
                  t  ttt##ttt        tt   
                  t     ##                 
                   tt