February 2012
24 posts
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hiroshima
i wander through the peace park alone. i have come from an island filled with deer, taken a deserted ferry, ridden in the loading bay where there were no cars, stood looking out over the water. it’s hard, to remember that everything i see is new or rebuilt. even these trees are young. some men speak to crowds, showing pictures, telling what i grasp to be their parent’s stories, the...
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alicante
in alicante, on the east coast of spain, my father hires a car to take us to the castle on the hill.
so much anymore
i hope you’re well and reading a big old book right now.
maybe you have glasses on and a pencil in your hand.
i don’t know.
i don’t use pencils so much anymore.
maybe you don’t either.
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Poem for Leigh Hunt
I find ways to keep a sense of peace but it is not always easy; for example, I can’t keep my questions tempered: What kind of sun expounds its rays upon the hills but then mutes like an ordinary bulb, small and self-contained? Moreover, what moon filters the blistering whiteness of snow so that it can only be seen by the fiscally immune, enamored by the dully-noted? Let me amble with Keats...
when you're young
‘when you’re young you have all kinds of idealistic notions in your head, but coming face to face with the realities of your own life makes you see how immature you are.’
- hidetoshi takahashi, underground
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my mother laughs
my mother laughs, when she sees the feathers in your hair.
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wild swans
I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over. And what did I see I had not seen before? Only a question less or a question more; Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying. Tiresome heart, forever living and dying, House without air, I leave you and lock your door. Wild swans, come over the town, come over The town again, trailing your legs and crying!
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
...
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another year, another year
well, i did it. twenty six years. only 10 of which i really remember all that well and half of those have been over the legal drinking age, which means that 7 of them are subject to misinterpretation and poor accuracy.
last year this time i was on an island in thailand doing my best to erase a year and a half of shit and deep emotional scarring. i knew i was coming to japan but had no idea what...
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winters
downtown seattle, we walk beneath the lights. they are strung in trees whose leaves have fallen, they line the streets and are reflected in the water on the ground.
my father walks ahead, my mother’s hand in his, the bulge of his enormous wallet in the back pocket of his worn out jeans.
this place is still new for my mother. even after twenty years spent living fifteen minutes way she...
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a while ago
i remember only one christmas with my grandfather.
we are in san pedro, california, and he is sitting on a couch in the living room. it is leather, dark brown and cracked, covered with a white blanket embroidered. his glasses are rose colored aviators, corrective lenses worn inside and out. he calls me mijo and wears dark blue jeans, a white t-shirt, a leather jacket. i know little about him...
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grey
can words once spoken,
mean the same thing twice.
of what we spoke in the forest,
the sounds we passed each other there,
how can they ever be more,
than they’ve already been.
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twenty one fifty nine
in a foreign named town in northern oregon i exit the freeway and drive through a thick fog to meet a friend. our truck is left on the street in front of trevor’s mother’s house, its bed piled high with possessions; yours, mine, ours. it’s not quite night, but evening, and everything is grey, glowing dimly in the cloud, pulsing with soft light.
we drive through the town in...
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what things want
You have to let things Occupy their own space. This room is small, But the green settee Likes to be here. The big marsh reeds, Crowding out the slough, Find the world good. You have to let things Be as they are. Who knows which of us Deserves the world more?
-Robert Bly
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set in sand
just hammered out a very tentative travel schedule for march, april, and may. if you find yourself in any of the following places around the same time i aim to be, or want to come hang out for a bit, let me know.
my life is an open ship. come and join me for a while.
march 22: leave tokyo, japan for kuala lumphur, malaysia
march 23-25: singapore
march 26: leave kuala lumphur for paris, france
...
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dust of snow
The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.
-Robert Frost
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underground
I also had some major doubts about love. When I was around 19 I thought long and hard and came to the following conclusion: pure love for another person, and what people call romantic love, are two different things. Pure love doesn’t manipulate the relationship to one’s advantage, but romantic love is different. Romantic love contains other elements - the desire to be loved by the...