March 1, 2015

Teruo Yamagata

Teruo Yamagata

Still the same message
on the station message board –
remaining coldness                 1983/1984
someone called to me
from the river’s other side
gathering of herbs                            1984
unsettled accounts
almost seem to multiply
think I’ll take a nap                         1997?
no one comes to see
the psychiatric patient
wild chrysanthemum                       2000
still clearly marked
twenty-fifth anniversary
the old calendar                               2001
the new calendar
from the southern hemisphere
how shall I hang it?                           2007
astronomical observatory
no longer manned
snow mountain                                 2011
all along the coast
still several thousand missing
look! a shooting star                         2011
my old cat
sleeping by the fireside
a one-way chat                                  2013
travelling alone
repeating the Buddha’s name
through a withered field                   2013

All poems copyright by the author. They are not for any use without explicit permission. A number of these poems have been published in Geppo 2010-2013, Vol XXXV:3-XXXVIII:1. Others have appeared in various YTHS anthologies, 1979-2012.