Mike this turned out wonderfully! I always love when we do cooperations because they stretch the boundaries of my academic and creative ability. Your poem is a perfect mirror to my historical backdrop.🙌🏼🩷
Thank you Dorie, I can't believe you thought yours was the "boring" part. Next time, we'll have to do something fictional, so we're not restrained. Once your schedule clears. 🙂
A wonderful collaborative piece. I loved all of it. Not a subject I'm overly familiar with, so the historical notes and writing really helped and the poem played it all out beautifully.
I don’t even know where to begin with this except to say I felt it before I understood it.
The way Dorie held history here: Tomoe is not just recalled, she’s framed like something half-myth, half-record, where the footnotes still breathe. It never feels like explanation. It feels like listening in on something already in motion.
Mike, the shift into the vagabond samurai’s voice is devastating in its restraint. The mud, the seasons, the smell of aftermath—it grounds everything so completely that Tomoe’s brief passage through the battle becomes almost unbearable in its clarity. She doesn’t just appear in the story; she cuts through it.
Together, it feels like legend and lived memory meeting without trying to resolve each other. Just crossing paths, briefly, and leaving a mark that doesn’t fade cleanly.
Mike this turned out wonderfully! I always love when we do cooperations because they stretch the boundaries of my academic and creative ability. Your poem is a perfect mirror to my historical backdrop.🙌🏼🩷
Thank you Dorie, I can't believe you thought yours was the "boring" part. Next time, we'll have to do something fictional, so we're not restrained. Once your schedule clears. 🙂
You got it Mike! Anytime!
"Bravery in the face of a doomed cause, in the eyes of a dying lord, in the bond of a loyal companion, becomes legend."
Thank you Gan!
A beautiful piece ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you V S
A wonderful collaborative piece. I loved all of it. Not a subject I'm overly familiar with, so the historical notes and writing really helped and the poem played it all out beautifully.
Thank you Gary
I don’t even know where to begin with this except to say I felt it before I understood it.
The way Dorie held history here: Tomoe is not just recalled, she’s framed like something half-myth, half-record, where the footnotes still breathe. It never feels like explanation. It feels like listening in on something already in motion.
Mike, the shift into the vagabond samurai’s voice is devastating in its restraint. The mud, the seasons, the smell of aftermath—it grounds everything so completely that Tomoe’s brief passage through the battle becomes almost unbearable in its clarity. She doesn’t just appear in the story; she cuts through it.
Together, it feels like legend and lived memory meeting without trying to resolve each other. Just crossing paths, briefly, and leaving a mark that doesn’t fade cleanly.
I’m genuinely in awe of what you built here.
Thank you Dipti, credit to Dorie for the scholarly framework this rests on