Short Poems

After awaking,
I forgot
for a moment
I was
on the road —
still feeling comfortable
in the wake

An old carriage
with its legs near to collapse
stops for a rest —
worn out from traveling far
on
the way

Overgrown with water shield,
sunk in the pond,
the upright stone
no longer upright
by the water's edge

Just to play
hide and seek
the way I did long ago —
crouched down in a corner,
squeezing in so tight

Startled by the sound
of children blowing wildly
on straw whistles,
I wake from my summer

In a mountain village
when I'm lost in the dark
of the mind's dreaming,
the sound of the wind
blows me to brightness

Since I no longer think
of reality
as reality,
what reason would I have
to think of dreams as dreams?

Not stopping to mark the trail,
let me push even deeper
into the mountain!
Perhaps there's a place
where bad news can never reach me!

Trailing on the wind,
the smoke of Mount Fuji
fades in the sky,
moving like my thoughts
toward some unknown end

Who would remember,
who would come
looking for me,
pushing his way along this mountain path
so drenched in dew?