To the Gods I don’t believe in(Which is all of them)Please hear me nowListen with your void-rapt earsAnd answer me this:How can a man tell his beloved dog“The summer of your life is over”? How can I say it?Those long, sun-soaked days we thought would never endGone, spent, never returningHow can I say“Not that toy, […]
The night I learnedthat the cinema in our townwas closing,I wept. I sifted memories, turned back timetrying to reclaim all those momentsof awesadnessexhilarationjoysitting in shadow with folksjust plain Americansin our nothing special, sometimes faulty cinemait’s janky but it’s ours. We lost ourselves in that third spacehappily together but each in our separate worldsthe dark, the […]
Moonlight on the Ōyodo RiverDances same as moonlight on any morningOn any waterThe early cold, breath becomes fogAnd disappears Footsteps on the Ōyodo RiverFall same as footsteps on any eveningOn any pathThe late warmth, day becomes nightAnd disappears The sounds of the Ōyodo RiverFlow same as sounds on any dayOn any riverThe midday heat, sweat […]
At the top of the hill of possible grief, Is where I meet it, Or it meets me. We join in mutual expiration, Breath comes ragged, If it comes, At all. In the haze of the night of possible grief, Is where we feel it, A loving ambush, all prepared. It watches, companionable Offering the […]
Greetings, dear friends of the present and curious citizens of the future. It’s been almost two and a half years since the pandemic began, and most of the people I know have quit the “COVID dance.” We’re done sheltering in place, done with social distancing, done with masking, and we all got vaccinated and boosted. […]
I. Grabbing the Wheel It’s like, we’ve been in a car with a brick on the gas pedal and no one at the wheel, careening down the road, running over people and crashing into things. We’re still in the car. We can’t get out of the car. But someone could at least grab the […]
This is a kind of meta-post about my study habits, and was written in response to a request from one of my readers. “How have you managed to stay so disciplined in this endeavor?” he asked. He was particularly curious to hear about the “tactics and vital choreographies” that “make your extensive reading and writing […]
Bury your life in bookends for a bookend eases things A start and a beginning both will carry you as wings Bring your callous calling forth whisper through the wall A crackling caterwaul awaits the generous recall You haven’t made it out just yet your anchor still resides But brilliant was the time we met […]
it’s a wave that blows and blasts us, sends us out, tousled, enduring the marred matter of motive it’s a hum that rides and wrecks us, pulls us home, spent, wandering the cobbled course of confusion when i stepped, and you stepped, and we stepped, creases ceased and blood began when i stepped, and you […]
The next word is the word of wonder–– the word we wait for, and wait again. The next sigh is the sigh of smoke–– the sigh set off by our soft trigger. The next call is the call of condolence–– the call we put off, just forget it. The next leap is the leap of […]