POEM: natsukashii

Posted 2 December, 2011 in Japan, My poems, Poetry

Listen to this poem using the player above.

/ / /

This poem is a combination of images from my past and images from the present.

natsukashii

genmaicha leaves
in a clay pot

Tokyo sounds
subway travels

tatami mats
against our legs

tangy curry
from little cubes

Tonari no
Totoro &

a cat who steps
on his belly

maybe you should
kiss me again

POEM: Tohoku

Posted 6 November, 2011 in Japan, My poems, Poetry

Listen to this poem using the player above.

Tohoku
(for TR)

there’s a woman on this bus
who looks just like you did
when we met twenty years ago

it’s hard to look at her
without losing my grip on this world
arriving back in Tohoku

where we ate soba noodles
until one of our friends threw up
trying to prove his strength

you were so beautiful
not like a painting
on the wall of a museum

forcing the viewer
to stand behind the rope
or risk damaging its brittle surface

no, you were like a field
of pale cherry blossoms
under the sun of northern Japan

inviting us all closer with a warm smile
as we orbited like honey bees
entranced and attentive

two decades later
the young woman on this bus
could almost be your daughter

for the last few hours
every time she’s smiled
I’ve been back there again

remembering that first taste of freedom
those cold winter days
in the mountains of Tohoku

stone #41

Posted 10 February, 2011 in aros, Japan, My poems, Poetry, Stones

the heater’s fan clicks off
the room is a field of silence
I am imagining Mt. Fuji
I am becoming a mountain

haiku (stone #40)

Posted 9 February, 2011 in Food, Haiku, Japan, My poems, Poetry, Stones

This haiku is largely an inside joke. Sorry about that.

/ / /

warm miso soup
cold soba & the taste of avocado
way better than Chipotle (TM)

stone #33

Posted 2 February, 2011 in aros, Japan, My poems, Poetry, Stones

Listen to this poem using the player above.

/ / /

Kinkaku-ji glows golden on my computer screen
illuminates a Japan-shaped hole in my heart

a class full of boys who’d never talked to girls
all but one fell in love with our tour guide

POEM: Matsushima

Posted 26 January, 2011 in Audio Poems, Japan, My poems, Poetry

Listen to this poem using the player above.

A poem about one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I’ve spent quite a bit of time there over the years. I’m translating this one into Japanese, but it’s a difficult process for me.

Matsushima

we sat at the stern of the boat
tossing shrimp-flavored snacks
to the trailing gulls

in the picture, I am smiling

hundreds of tiny islands, each
with its own pine tree
like a flag planted by Mother Earth

“I claim this island in my own name”

Basho, tongue tied, brush quivering
could write nothing but the name
of the place and an exclamation

“ah!”

after, we made tea in a cast-iron pot
suspended from the roof beams
over the coals of the fire

in this picture, too, I am smiling

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