In our petitions
for mercy
repose
is the standard
by which we elicit
the preferred company of grace.

In our petitions
for mercy
repose
is the standard
by which we elicit
the preferred company of grace.

From the series, Japan Poems.
Time alone
leaves us small
cherished pleasures
through which our lives
are gathered slowly
in moments
of favored ephemera.

Within
the dark cradling weave
of silence
softly she tenders
the stuff of dreams
upon which my starry vigils
are gently rounded.

There are
tunnels at
the end of the light
leading back
to passages
marking our
long day’s journey
into night.

At a distance,
sea changes,
while the wind sings
an elegy for the effaced.

From the series, Japan Poems.
In the humid haunt
of vinyl heaven
one man’s canary soul
vaulting in quarter
and half-notes
slotted between rapier motes
and circular motions of dreaming
worn down end to end
to play on.

From the series, Japan Poems.
To be found
wanting
is the favored
and persistent urge
of longing’s desire
to know itself
as a distant calling
toward the siren of intimacy.

From the series, Japan Poems.
Until I can see you,
the cities will vanish,
effaced mutely in swaths
of white on white,
a glaring monopoly
and divide—
alone these distances
prevail to hail symmetry,
its pageants and faults,
the legacy of runes,
every movement
preceding solace
and respite
to one whose lyrics
have outlived its song.

Artwork by Miyu Fujita
From the series, Japan Poems.
Rainy day,
through the upstairs window
at the café,
framed within the wrought-iron
railing enclosing the stone ledge
on which the potted plants sit,
women in summer kimonos
carrying closed umbrellas.
