Short Poems

" Never let it out! "
was his vow to me
back then,
but what will happen now?
For with all that
in his heart
still his feelings

Ah, the futility
of putting trust
in pledges
that turn out to be lies!
And less reason
is there to wait
on an evening
never promised.

" When the snow falls
in the garden, "
he said to me —
but he doesn't come;
so busy a time
it is
at the end

More than anywhere
it is here
that one feels the cool
of the passing winds —
where the sun cannot break through
beneath the trees
in the garden.

What can one say
about
the lengthy partings
in this world of men?
The geese
that left in the haze
at least now
have come again.

If one gave no thought
to the day
one would return
to one's native home,
then there would be
no reason
to make haste
along the way.

If all that had passed
we could
never remember —
what would help us,
then,
for even a moment
to forget
the troubles of old age?

As the sky brightens,
in gaps
between the clouds — stars,
shining faintly through,
as few in number
as visits
from the one
who pledged his love.

It makes no sense!
— to get entangled
again
after so much time!
In the air,
the dangling end
of a broken
spider's thread.

Under evergreens
I walk
along a pathway
now gone to sight
beneath autumn leaves
strewn there
by winter's mountain winds.