Space Poem Chain

Space Poem Chain

We children of the stars    children of space
born in the oceans and matured on land
have the history of the universe      its hundreds of billions of years
etched on our bodies
Look! Today too somewhere a tiny light

01
Naoko Yamazaki

The address is not a village nor a city nor a county      not even a country
The address is this planet      and the Milky Way Galaxy
Led on by light      sped along by an energy that lurks in the dark

02
Shuntarou Tanikawa

A school of bonito as it migrates across the Pacific
The legs of a giraffe kicking up sand as it runs away
are both alive     they move     they throb.

A Mongolian yurt     is pulsing in time     to the lusty cries
of a baby     newly born

03
Makoto Ooka

Into an infinite world
by chance I was born
Why am I here?

04
Shun Asano

That's simple!
It's because you're the God of Fate's special one
God is always close by   good at going unnoticed
And now, fly!   Anywhere you like
But my heart's pounding and I'm seeing stars

05
Kazuko Shiraishi

Ready set go!   Let's fly off to the unknown
‚erom land to sky   from night to day   from dark to light---it's a long journey
I'm going to see you   We've never met   but somewhere you're waiting for me I know

06
Tantsu

On a package tour to the Moon
our guide     turns to us with a warm smile
How are the old bamboo cutter and his wife these days?
The oceans so blue     the sparkling green      the kind people
How I miss your star!

07
Keiko Nakamura

A star that is our cradle
our heart - from where we took our leap
but why?

08
Frank Hogan

Riding in a cradle
I'm headed for the other shore      so far away
That distant       shore past life
Overcoming      all obstacles
I'll arrive there      safe and sound

09
Dr.Yoshio Fujita

Tiny me, I swam and swam and here I am
in Mama's belly
set for a new beginning

10
akihito uezato

It's pitch black inside this tummy
Keep trying    you've got to find the light
I found it     I found it  Now grab hold
That's it    my hometown     I'm born!
Here there and everywhere the light

11
Haruka Genseki

Two round eyes smiling is a frog in spring
Half-closed eyes smiling is the Buddha as he dreams
And one eye shutting in a wink is this boy, me

12
Junko Takahashi

Both your eyes close when you wink, don't they
But no need to worry!
Today you zipped down a slide in the park
that was beyond you yesterday
That's what life is all about isn't it?

13
Gen Kawase

Look who's here, I exclaimed, and leapt from the lake
Half a year gone, the beating of birdwing filled the sky
as the migrants returned, earth's magnet their guide

14
Itoton-1

Glancing down, I see the town where I was born
At the river mouth where we used to fly kites, children are fishing
On the bank where a young boy rode a two-wheeled bike for the first time
stands a young girl, staring at the tire treadmarks he's left in the sand
I'll never get to go back again

15
Kanta Haguma

Since first keeling over at Colonia, that old city on the border,
I've keeled over a lot     Each time I think "That's gravity for you!"
The other day thanks to keeling I saw a plum blossom on a dead tree

16
Ryoko Shindo

Submitting to gravity we sink
like a submarine into the sea
of clouds     and land in Shanghai
another sea      of people beneath skyscraper cliffs
And there up high       quilt after quilt airing on bamboo poles!

17
Zashiki Okina

Spring's first day has come and gone---in the breeze a white shirt is drying.
Far off to the southwest          Fuji's upended fan          folds a little.
And come to think of it, it must be almost lunchtime for the kids at school.

18
Takashi Okai

Deep in darkness on the ocean floor a giant squid
glows palely
and thinks
if only I had wings like a bird instead of ten
arms and tentacles I'd dip and soar and fly around the sky

19
Takahara 1045

Your dream invites me on a journey of 20,000 leagues---
Riding a ferry to distant shores I'll chant your letters aloud
my voice so strong it carries to friends as yet unknown

20
Picard

Listen closely and you'll hear a sound
It's bats flying
in the ultramarine oil of a tropical night
ferrying baobab pollen
There, that's their sound

21
Yukari Kojima

Tonight on this southern island even the horizon is a blur
and with winter fireflies for beacons
the blue path ribboning through roadside grass is a runway to the stars

22
Yasuhiro Endo

Now for flight into an ultramarine world!
The darkness is not to awe us but
to make us sense the guiding light beyond
for all the sky is one
Some day you too will be someone's guiding star

23
Hayato Iizuka

Even if somewhere in the bottomless sky there are other stars just like Earth
there is only this one field of gravity and light     where we laugh and where we die
each of us holding within     a small universe of our own

24
Motoo Ando

PAGE TOP