I dream of a silent world, such a one as might exist | on a deep seabed, miles below | the surface
{Some things can only be reached | by dreams}
Inaccessible, and yet utterly mundane, perhaps it was a place of happiness?
懐 [natsukashii] || between the seashells | and the sea || Our mouths | our lips || a time | of | cicadas and drought, an end to school…
Is it so far off, that silent world?
Isn’t there a moment | as you’re translating | 懐 | to English | [natsukashii, ‘nostalgia’] or | vice versa | when “it” | is | in neither | one tongue, nor | the other?
{has left English, I mean, has set off for, but not yet reached | Japanese?}
A time, too, between || all things || when your love
has left one moment | but not | yet | arrived | in the next?
In these slipping senses | we once passed a summer || A place like the silence, now it may only be | reached by dreams
Great summer clouds | passing across a high blue sky || Our throats were dry | even though we | kissed•
•
from the series hypergrammar (open-ended, 2012–present)
(this poem, July 2012)
hypergram 