『because we will meet again』
Poetry Compilation・August 3, 2020・Full Text
I think this compilation is one of the more coherent pieces of my recent work. There isn’t anything new in it, since I felt that I had a lot to work with already. The key point in this compilation is the flow – the connections linking each poem to the next. The order was very deliberate, even the choice of placing the title piece at the end, and on the surface, figuring out an overarching theme isn’t hard. The message, maybe, is harder to place, but I’ll leave it up to interpretation. I really enjoyed putting this together and rereading it as a compiled work, and I might revisit it sometime in the future.
firelight in summer
Free Verse・August 4, 2020・Full Text
As noted at the end of the original post, I wrote this piece for a friend’s birthday. It doesn’t immediately read as a stand-alone birthday message, since it’s less a celebration and more a reflection – a recognition that “there won’t ever be another time like this.” The spacing and visual flow are key points, and there are several important, unidentified metaphors – the fire, the bridge, the music, immortality. In a way, you can read it as less a birthday message and more a message of mourning.
timeslip
Tanka・August 5, 2020・Full Text
Why a message about a new year in the middle of summer? Time is highly subjective and socially constructed, I’ve talked about it before in pieces like 『Anniversary』. The sense that another year has passed can happen for different people at different times of our social year, and for a variety of reasons. How do we mark our own time? Is it our own birthdays, or the birthdays of people we’ve lost? Or is it something else altogether?
smoke screens
Tanka・August 6, 2020・Full Text
Sometimes I feel that as barren and unforgiving as our human cities are, some beautiful pattern of life, some non-human fragments of nature, can still be seen under the surface. It depends on where you are, how you live, and whether or not you pay attention. To me, our cities are a mask – and not necessarily the good, effective kind. The question becomes, what exactly are they masking, and why? And what’s with ‘smoke screens’?
flux
Tanka・August 7, 2020・Full Text
There is a deadline coming up for me, and strangely enough, I can’t tell if it’s a deadline I’ve already met, or one I won’t be able to meet. There doesn’t seem to be any other option – either I’ve already done it, or I won’t be able to. Why can’t I tell the difference? Why don’t I have another choice? Everything is self-imposed and self-interpreted – and everything is in flux.
cloud cover
Tanka・August 8, 2020・Full Text
It’s rarely so simple as ‘good times’ and ‘bad times’. You can have clouds without storms, and rain without sadness. Someone might ask you how your day is, or how you’ve been, and it shouldn’t be unacceptable to say “just alright” or “I don’t know”. If unpredictable weather is hard to navigate, how are we supposed to put these unpredictable moments and feelings into two or three short words?
Living as Kohaku 