My thoughts on the Japanese geisha (or, geiko, regionally). In the past, there were many, many geisha (the Japanese language does not typically use plurals, so all those who try to say to me "but there's more than ONE geisha"--stop it). Now, since the second World War, their numbers are dwindling and there aren't nearly as many as there were before. It makes me sad to see beauty die in the world. With all of our industrialized cities and machine-run lives, there is little room for rustic beauty. Open meadows and forests are being torn up and replaced with car-lots and businesses. Did you know that all of the world's population could possibly fit in the state of Texas? Then why must we tear-up these beautiful places for profit? Can't we just space-out more? Ugh!


Oh, anyway, enough of my rant, back to my "geisha are running short" speech. I'm glad that the geisha profession is getting another boost in recent years. More and more young women are become geisha now, though it may take many, many years for it to get back to what it was pre-WWII. I'm an admirer of these performers, and I sometimes wish I could be one (alas, I am an American caucasian--Liza Dalby is often attributed as an American geisha, but she is NOT! She only lived among them, studying them for a year). Anyway... Hoorah for the rising geisha population.

Please tell me what you think of my poem, I'd be glad to know. Thank you! Domo arigatou gozaimasu nake nara dokusho no kimi yo! ^_^ ...I hope I got that right...