I ran away, but you ran even faster.
I changed myself into a swift moving stream, you became
           a school of hungry fish.
I became the vast plain of the sea, you were the ship
           that sailed me.
Then I was invisible as the wind, but the leaves
           on your tree kept trembling.
I swore at last you wouldn't find me out, and there
          you are, the gold in my mountain-side.
 
 
 
 

I was preoccupied with my own thoughts day and night
not realizing how vain I was.
You walked through the door of my life and
shook me, saying, Come on now it's time you woke up.
 
 
 
 

like nettles the truth stings us if it doesn't draw
blood or tears what good is the poem?
 
 
 
 

my life, just as it is -
          stepping into the stream,
I cool my feet
 
 
 
 

I've lost it, then I've found it again,
though it's never been gone -
That love that plays hide and seek
in the corners of his heart
 
 
 
 

The past does not return, and neither do you -
I know that it is useless to go on longing
for what I can no longer have, and yet I do.
 
 
 
 

I'm off to the beach no power on earth can stop me except
death it's him I feel nipping at my heels at times
 
 
 
 

If only I could be a desert filled with rain
                      for one night -
All the flowers of my heart would burst into bloom
 
 
 
 

As numerous as the leaves on the ancient fig tree
                 in the courtyard are,
my thoughts of you by now outnumber them
 
 
 
 

Who can say where my love for you began -
like the spring stream far up the mountain side,
its source is unknowable
 
 
 
 

before he spoke, and afterwards -
the silence of the morning-glory
 
 
 
 

Their ship sets sail
without captain or crew.
When the storm hits,
it's every man for himself.
 
 
 
 

One lovely night after another, the stars overhead -
                     where will it end,
this solitary road I've taken?
 
 
 
 

I'm all tangled up inside forty years wanting to see clearly
who I am one shooting star on a cloudless night
streaks across the autumn sky
 
 
 
 

Tonight the palm trees in the moonlight do not look like palm
trees, and I myself do not feel like myself -
What is this strange magic in this thing called love?
 
 
 
 

The stars crowd overhead
and then the night is nearly gone.
I have been like a man who does not see
that dawn is about to break.
 
 
 
 

When we parted I could not find
the words to express my feelings.
Only now have I found them
and you are no longer here to hear them.
 
 
 
 

No one was there -
          the wind pouring through the palm trees
sounds like rain
 
 
 
 

Everyone tells me that I'm a fool for loving you
That may be so
But not to love you would really be foolish
 
 
 
 

From the heights of the cliff, the surf breaks
                      far below -
the demons in my heart dare me to jump
 
 
 
 

The moon is nearly full
The night is quiet and deep
If I didn't want you so much
I wouldn't come at this hour to wake you
to tell you all about it
 
 
 
 

My love for him this strong - that my heart tries to pretend
        not to know what it already knows so well
 
 
 
 

Did that bird sing for me?
Does the moon rise for us?
Are we here in this world for each other,
or can all this be a dream,
and has our one night together just begun?
 
 
 
 

Among the rocks, I'm water
When everything comes and goes like water,
I'm strong and firm as a rock
 
 
 
 

We fill our days with so many distractions.
We avoid looking into each other's eyes.
We open and close doors,
looking for what can only be found within.
 
 
 
 

firefly
        in a darkened field -
first star I see tonight
 
 
 
 

How many days since anyone has come to visit?
Only the lone moon
this winter night at the bay window
 
 
 
 

The leaves on the tree of your love
have changed their color and fallen.
How well I remember the shade
beneath that tree we once shared.
 
 
 
 

It is only in dreams that the dead
come back to visit us.
Why then does our love not reappear to me
as it used to be?
 
 
 
 

I cannot complain that you have gone -
I would not expect the pure white snow of one night
to remain the whole season
 
 
 
 

Our love was like a delicate spring blossom -
so beautiful that others envied it
and wanted to pick it for themselves
 
 
 
 

the whole winter evening ahead of me -
I take down the Kahlua and cream
and an old book of poems
 
 
 
 

The maple leaves were falling
when we first met.
They're falling again
now that we've parted.
 
 
 
 

the bright blue sky with one black sea bird soaring
way up in it where there are no clouds
 
 

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