Over and over we break
open, we break and
we break and we open.
For a while, we try to fix
the vessel—as if
to be broken is bad.
As if with glue and tape
and a steady hand we
might bring things to perfect
again. As if they were ever
perfect. As if to be broken is not
a...

by Kiyoko Nagase
from Bara Shishuh

It is truly good
to have colors disappear at the end of each day
for me who has a heart so joyfully excited 
waiting for them to be born afresh tomorrow morning

My dear one, who has not shown yourself to me
though you are believed t...

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice—

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles."Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,...

Middle age refers more
to landscape than to time:
it's as if you'd reached

the top of a hill
and could see all the way
to the end of your life,

so you know without a doubt
that it has an end—
not that it will have,

but that it does have,
if only in outline—
so for t...