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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