20110417

Yoko Danno


from Aquamarine


the eater is eaten

if grains
of sand
get
into your
shoes
don’t
look back
your unborn
will get
injured
*
a beast
of a shadow
follows
you –
a trail
of hoof-
prints
from
the brink
of a swamp
*
he is
at your
heels
eating your
dreams
whenever
you are not
on your toes –
the eater
is eaten

when the mud settles


at random

a volume
of vibrant
seeds
of life
dancing
arranged
without will –

it happens
in the right
place
in the right
moment

in the magma
four million years
old

or in the soft
tissues
of
human brains
   in love –

a crystalline union


below the surface

where are you going?
to my own backyard


a ripple of sparkling
light flattens
when it ceases to blow

chitchat of the sun
on the surface of water
quieting down to a lull –

without noticing
the subtle
moment the wind falls

we are born alone
out of the shadows
and reborn into a blur –

as I float as if
in the salt water
arise in deep silence

exquisite bodies
translucent, still alive
wavering among weeds



Yoko Danno is Japanese, but writes poetry solely in English. She is the author of several poetry books and chapbooks, including Hagoromo: A Celestial Robe (The Ikuta Press, 1984), Epitaph for memories (The Bunny and the Crocodile Press, 2002), The Blue Door, a collaboration with James C. Hopkins (Word Works, 2006) and A Sleeping Tiger Dreams of Manhattan: poetry, photographs and sound by Danno, Hopkins, and Bernard Stoltz (The Ikuta Press, 2008). Her translation, Songs and Stories of the Kojiki, was published by Ahadada Books (Toronto/Tokyo, 2008). Some of her poems appeared in International Anthology of Poetry and Prose 47 (New Directions, 1983), poem, home: An Anthology of ARS POETICA (Paper Kite Press, 2009), Otoliths and Poetry Kanto.
http://www.ikutapress.com/danno3.html
 
 
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