I still think
Heaven is a small
Town with bright
Blue eyes and the
Sound of a child's
Laugher—

That it unknots
The brows of even
The most weary of
Philosophers.

I still think
Heaven is a small
Garden encrusted with
White feathers and
The west-wound winds
Coming from the Atlantic.

An old harbor—Vladivostok—
Spelled perfectly,
Abandoned by
Knaves and all the carnage they left,
Or Ceasaria:

Dry bed of luminous ruins.

I imagine You beckoning us:
"Don't be afraid, come!"—
Revealing pockets of
Nature only you would have
The courage to call

Beautiful.

Two relatives feeling distant
As time moulds each new birth
Into a symbol of the changing world
Drinking in the suns changing light
(From its womb directly or
From the cuvetus face of the moon)
And Narcissus stands, arms wide
Enveloping his kin in sweeping grace
His face dancing the sun's dance across the sky;
He is an over-arch of all their quirks,
Diluted so that the complexities
Are a fleeting dream on the tongue
And his colours are an assault on the eye.

Jonquil in yellow petticoat
Perhaps the wallflower of the dance,
Juvenile grace in her open face
That breathes its own unique airs;
She gleams her simple hue,
A definition within herself
As she unknots her roots from the rest
And pioneers her garden anew.

She sits there
expert in silence
She listens
to my oceans
She unknots
daily tribulations
practice the art of patience
in undisguised grace
worded and unworded

She's the forgiver of darkness
simple in compassion
hearted in experience of
giving, waiting, wondering,
musing and learning
side by side

And I just love
her trainers
by the willow trees
the blue T-shirts
the yellow smile
matching the light
in her eyes

I love her like a mother
like a brother
like another human being
I just love
who she is.

"While I gaze upon it
I feel a certain distance:
The moon light
Makes its way to dwellings
Everywhere, I feel."

      by Ki no Tsurayuki


My Reply

Bright Issues the Moon
dusts the landscape with pale ash
illumination
slackens our taut customs
we're brought closer to our hearts

[Bonus Material. Earlier looser version :

When brighter the Moon
unknots our taught habits
spends our ideas
freely in its pale light
we act closer to our hearts]