Tag: poetry

melt

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

all caught up in a rapture, a reverie
in poetic flurry
i fall
like snow, adrift
swirling softly in mid-march cold
and then land
right here
on this plum blossom petals pink
open and full
i melt

Courtesy of Facebook memories, the above poem was brought back to me from three years ago when I was still living in Japan. And there was a much older haiku from some eleven or twelve years ago, also inspired by pink blossoms. Unbeknownst to me, I have been a pink flower poet in the making for much longer than I had realized. I now declare henceforth the promulgation of flowetry—flower poetry. 🤭
Wishing you a happy and flower-full spring! 🌸💗🌸

dragon

.Reading time 1 minute.

did i summon that dragon?
or did it come here
for me
dancing
with its luminous globular
gem?
this crystal
clear
carries my heart
into and across uncharted oceans
of enchantment

Happy Lunar New Year! We have entered the year of the dragon and so here is a poem I wrote over four and a half years ago, titled simply, dragon. Unbeknownst to me then, I was indeed truly entering unchartered oceans of enchantment in ways which were beyond my wildest dreams… beyond even, my own imaginative capacity. So much has transpired in these past four and a half years, and now it is already 2024—the year of the dragon itself. I believe the most magical is still yet to come. Get ready!

Wishing all of you a wonderful and beautiful new year🐉🔮

beautiful

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

this body
in the soft folds of kimono
also creases
gently
without resistance
to earth and to drifting stars
this body breathing, obi-bound, is a delicate dance
like butterflies in the wind
like waves of the ocean
rising and falling
weaving together all the days and all the nights into one endless strand
step after step
fold after fold
crease after crease
this body is singing
and dreaming
is birthing
anew
worlds of beautiful

again

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

empires rise and fall
and the world’s great cities are built to someday crumble back into the earth
as landmasses collide and drift apart
the stars, in brilliant constellations, climb up into the night sky only to disappear again
buried somewhere beneath the horizon of day
and we come and we go, again
and again
and yet
we dance, again
all the while we dance
again
in these eternal arms of love

one thousand years

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

one thousand years
in a heartbeat passing by
we dance again

new year aspirations

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

i want to fly with wings
like the angels
full of light and love and peace
beautiful
and in the divine wind, dance
like the starlings
precise, purposeful, impeccably wild and free
in spite of all these tears
the hardship and the heartache
in spite of our wars and endless trauma, catastrophe, disaster and destruction
i want to fall
again and again
like the drunken fools
madly in love with this world

in light of the shadows

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

while the world carries on
with its wars
waging in the hearts and minds of legions
and for eons
without, seemingly, an end
while the sun toils on and the moon weeps
for all our innocents buried underneath the trees
i want to stay here softly
in the darkness and in the silent night
i want still
in light of the shadows
this dance

fire

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

my heart
today
has no words
only fire
in this body burning
sacred
holy
and
divine
❤️‍🔥

ありがとう

.Reading time less than 1 minute.
  my heart

        today

    has         no      words
             only                                   love
            
                        for you
       for your love
                                     for me

ありがとう is arigato, “thank you” in Japanese.

sunrise sequel

.Reading time 2 minutes.

On the last day of my visit home to see my mother, I took one last sunrise photo—my heart filled with gratitude for her return from the hospital and steady recovery… My heart overwhelmed with gratitude for the doctors and nurses, the friends and family who prayed for her recovery, for the ability and support I received from my work to abruptly drop everything and fly across the Pacific to be with my mother, for the healing she received and for her own strong will to heal, for time with my family and our cat, for the ever deepening awareness of just how precious this life is… My heart flooded with the beauty of each and every new sunrise.

The following poem is inspired by and written for my mother, who enjoys gardening and playing the lyre, who loves harvesting the blueberries and baking bread, who delights in feeding the birds and fish and all the little creatures… for my mother, who is a poet and is poetry… for my precious mother, who is the sunrise…

home free

when the sun rises
all the beautiful flowers and butterflies dance
in this garden of life
in this wild symphony of wonder and delight

when the sun rises into the sky
i dance with the swallows
and with the wind
dancing
with no particular path nor purpose
dancing
just for joy
just for the sheer love of dancing
for love itself
and for life
for one another

when the sun rises
we dance wild and we fly
home free