Suiboku-ga

It took years for the master to teach me,
his inside student, the delicate art

of balancing the brush: how to channel
darkness and light through felt, stone and ink wash

to render orchid, mountains and mantis,
as if divining a part of myself.

In time, I learnt to find the shadow line
engrained in paper, like trailing a path

through my childhood forest without
causing any sound to bleed through the trees.