Apeiron

ἄπειρον, the unbounded

A medallion engraved ἄπειρον hangs above an ocean horizon, a small yellow umbrella resting on the cliff.

A Tribute

Real are the dreams of gods,and smoothly pass their pleasures,in a long immortal dream.Heard melodies are sweet,but those unheard are sweeter.Thou wast not born for death,immortal Bird!So sitting well in order,smite the sounding furrows,For my purpose holds,To sail beyond the sunset,And the baths of all the western stars,In a long meandering immortal dream.

A cento: lines from Keats (Lamia, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale) and Tennyson (Ulysses) that have stayed with me, gathered here as the inspiration for what follows.

Body Strong, Mind Serene,

In a long meandering immortal Dream.

Childlike Wonder; Endless Play

A child with a yellow umbrella walks through a misty valley among bowed, ghostly figures.

The Unseen and the Nameless

Ash and smoke float in the air,like spirits from cratered ground.Bodies scattered in the dirt,in death, peace is found.

Whispered accusations calling,to those who fed upon their lives.Rotting, there forgotten.Now swaddled in their lies.

No one there to cry for them.Nothing there to mark the grave.Nothing to say they died for them.There's no one left to save.

The Meandering Path

A child holding a yellow umbrella walks a cracked stone causeway meandering between dark and pale waters toward a misty horizon.

Refusal

There is no black. There is no white.There is no wrong. There is no right.Choosing neither, I look away.I choose to float. I choose the gray.I heed not your nudge, nor fear your wrath.I tread my own meandering path.

Three reflections of a child with a yellow umbrella stand across jungle, sunlit path, and stormy water.

A Pact with the Unknown

Looking back on past choices,I see it now,clear among the whispered voices.

Something that held me back,I could not join,I kept to the track.

Recalled faces joined in act;something whispered, I stood alone,I kept the pact.

Forgotten scenes, forgotten laughs,I trod alone.I trod the path.

A child slumps over a rain-wet table on an autumn terrace, a yellow umbrella leaning against the bench and a lit street lamp beside the railing, as sunlight breaks over a river below.

諦め

Akirame

The mask of indifference

Is acceptance all you need?To have your anxious thoughts freed.Freed from torment, freed from screamsDelaying pleasure, delaying dreams.

Acceptance, playing a waiting game.Troubles form, then clear like rain.Sitting still, as the world goes by.As what loomed large, drifts and dies.

Or is it paranoia, a kink of mind.That makes my thoughts, so unkind.That drives and stokes, my anxious fears.That sees the cracks, that draws the tears.

Or is acceptance, not to reason,To let things be,To accept, not to question,what you see.

A child kneels by a puddle floating a paper boat amid a ruined street, reflected in still water.

The Paper Boat

I was playing with my boatWhen you came and blocked the light.I asked you once to move along.You didn't. So I put things right.

The street was loud for just a while,A noise I did not choose to make,But puddles do not wait for longAnd paper boats aren't yours to break.

Now the water holds its hull,The wind decides which way it turns,The street is mine again, and still,And no one interrupts, and no one comes.

Don't ask me what the bodies mean.Don't ask me what I understand.I had a boat. You stopped my play.Now I have a boat again.

A child sits at a cliff edge facing a translucent figure across the sunrise, an umbrella resting between them.

Salut, Adieu

Melancholy

As you sit there in your darkness,Pondering upon your dreams,The ifs, the whys, the maybes,The laughter among the screams,Call me and I will comeAnd sit with you awhile,Join you in your darkness,join you in your guile.Thoughts of times and places,Clouds fleeting on the breeze,Whispered conversations,Opportunities unseized.

Look closer at your darkness,Look closer at your pain,Feel your emotions flare,Feel your emotions drain,Alone within your darkness,Come, take my hand,Together within the darkness,Here we'll make our stand.

Entombed within your darkness,Wrapped within your fears,A sense of something wanted,A sense of something near,Captures your imagination,And jumps to something new,Come rise from your darkness,And once more, Adieu.