TAKAHASHI, Shinkichi

Words

I don’t take your words

Merely as words.

Far from it.

I listen

To what makes you talk –

Whatever that is –

And me listen.

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The universe is forever falling apart --
No need to push the button,
It collapses at a finger's touch:
Why, it barely hangs on the tail of a sparrow's eye.

The universe is so much eye secretion,
Hordes leap from the tips
Of your nostril hairs. Lift your right hand:
It's in your palm. There's room enough
On the sparrow's eyelash for the whole.

A paltry thing, the universe:
Here is all the strength, here the greatest strength.
You and the sparrow are one
And, should he wish, he can crush you.
The universe trembles before him.

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The wind blows hard among the pines

Toward the beginning

Of an endless past.

Listen: you’ve heard everything.”

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A Wood in Sound

The pine tree sways in the smoke,

Which streams up and up.

There's a wood in sound.

My legs lose themselves

Where the river mirrors daffodils

Like faces in a dream.

A cold wind and the white memory

Of a sasanqua.

Warm rain comes and goes.

I'll wait calmly on the bank

Till the water clears

And willows start to bud.

Time is singed on the debris

Of air raids.

Somehow, here and now, I am another.”

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We can behold them.

The sparrow stirs,

The universe moves slightly.”

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Time

Time like a lake breeze

Touched his face,

All thought left his mind.

One morning the sun, menacing,

Rose from behind a mountain,

Singeing -like hope- the trees.

Full awakened, he lit his pipe

And assumed the sun-inhaling pose:

Time poured down - like rain, like fruit.

He glanced back and saw a ship

Moving towards the past. In one hand

He gripped the sail to eternity,

And stuffed the universe into his eyes.”

Rain

The rain keeps falling,

Even in my dreams.

The skull leaks badly.

There's a constant dripping

Down the back.

The rain, which no one

Remembers starting,

Keeps falling,

Even on the finest days.”

Stillness

A cock crows and someone

Strums a koto.

Nothing's wanting.

In the midst of this stillness,

I'm still.

Could I catch it, I'd drop

That butterfly into my mouth.”


Cloud

I'm cheerful, whatever happens,

a puff in sky --

what splendor exists, I'm there.

Life Infinite

Beyond words, this no-thingness within,

Which I've become. So to remain

Only one thing's needed: Zen sitting.

I think, breathe with my whole body -

Marvellous. The joy's so pure,

It's beyond lovemaking, anything.

I can see, live anywhere, everywhere.

I need nothing, not even life.”