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
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
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
Into an infinite world
by chance I was born
Why am I here?
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
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
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!
A star that is our cradle
our heart - from where we took our leap
but why?
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
Tiny me, I swam and swam and here I am
in Mama's belly
set for a new beginning
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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!
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
