TIME TRAVEL #1
Westward to Japan
We fly into tomorrow
Before today ends.
JAPANESE TODDLER
Petite and sad-eyed,
When gifted with a toy car
She glows with wonder.
JAPANESE FATHER
The headphones he fits
To his daughter’s tiny head
Are like a blessing.
FALL REUNION
Three old Japanese
Comrades smile for our camera
At the Buddhist shrine.
GINGKO BILOBA
Maidenhair fossil
Tree, you are said to be the
Cure for all life’s ills.
jAPAN CITIES
Swarming urban hives,
Every bus a cattle car,
Each crossing, Times Square.
FORECAST
Japan, exemplum
Of the word “congestion”:
Our planet’s future.
THE PHILOSOPHERS’ WALK
Lined with cherry trees
By a flowing waterway,
A respite from crowdS.
A FAR CALLING
From the Zushi train
We see a glimpse of Fuji,
Clear but far away.
THE TRAIN TO TAKAYAMA
Along a river
Cut into volcanic rock
The night falls early.
TAKAYAMA TO NAGOYA
Bullet trains cut straight
Through and between mountainsides
Gowned in fall colors.
MEMENTO MORI
At Hase temple
Kites circle over our heads.
Death is never far.
AT THE ZOO
With unhopeful eyes
The elephant looks at me
And I feel ashamed.
APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING
Fragrant lychee fruit,
Your delicious white sweetness
Hides in your rough rind.
THE HAKONE YAJIKITA
Painted charlatan,
You gull foreign visitors.
You are no ryokan.
TAKAYAMA MARKET
Your vegetables
Astonish foreign viewers:
So big, so perfect!
RESTING PLACE
Towering cedars
Shelter a benign spirit:
Koyasan’s founder.
LITTLE TREES
Gracious persimmons,
Your golden globes light our way
And your fruit hangs low.
AUTUMN SPLENDOR
Delicate fingered
Fiery red gold maples:
Fall epiphony.
ANOMALY
Sea of sand and stone
At the Silver Pavilion
A respite from crowds.
PETITION
Gnarly limbed old pine,
Symbol of longevity,
Teach us how to age.
TIME TRAVEL #2
As I’ve longed to do,
We fly back in time, but we
Don’t fly far enough.
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