On a cold grey noon / fresh sliced cucumber / brings summer back again

Each day scooping, wondering / how do two old cats / produce so much waste?

A sleepless night / and like a haunting song / you invade my mind

Children fall silent / eyes wide with reverence / as the cake is cut

Sweet girlish face / becomes demonic as she / strikes the piñata

Shibuya crossing / in the frenetic midst / a man reads a book

Two crows / flirting with high rises / fly in figure eights

what will the night bring / hard journeys or cosmic flight? / my dreamtime travels

at a gas station / while discussing work / meteor flares above

winds of change / a roaring chorus / in thrashing treetops

every apple plucked / half-chewed, spit out, discarded / fall feast for squirrels

even loves past / lingering like immortals / fall silent to fall

At memory's gate / I waited all night but / met only your ghost

turning deeper / shades of flame and amber / fall leaves drenched by rain

City night deepens / in length and solitude / chasing dream of you

City night deepens / in length and solitude / chasing dreams of you

Thousand shooting stars / blazing dreams on inky sky / wider than Tokyo

Lost in crowds again / searching each street, taxi, bar / for your lonely face

Pulsing dance-beat heart / moving bodies in rhythm / DJ in command

Cats, when given wings / in dreams are bored and annoyed / not elated

Islanders make a / gleaming trail of crushed shells, / path from sand to sea

The lagoon's depth a / mystery, as my toes touch big / silent sea creatures

A temple garden / falling leaves remain afloat / on chanting voices

Sweet-shop girl gives me / a woven bamboo basket / warmed by autumn light

Beneath the glamour / she is as lost and hungry / as a feral cat

The beast beneath his / guise of fangs and fur / is only human

Stone bridge at sunset / instead of crossing, we pause / and take photos

She much prefers / soft wordless conspiracies / of purring felines

Crowd of Brazilians / joyous samba rhythm song / improv carnaval

Too many ghosts / crowd the year's final hours / time to let them rest

The feasts begin / warding off death with laughter / and indulgence

Stars in the sky / not nearly as bright as / your eyes fixed on mine

Narrow shining streets / twist through deepening dusk / straight to the past

Night draws dark and near / warmed by comforting fragrance / of cooking rice

Hawk in flight / circling double loops above / winged infinity

Pine trees stripped of / Christmas finery / left curbside with trash

Sake in a cup / making the past / easier to swallow

Tea, fresh and bitter / first pour splashed in sink / offering for gods

Steam from my tea cup / unfurling in a sun beam / remembrance of spring

I think I glimpse / truth in this cup, or am I / just besotted?

Even the blue jay / huddled on a barren branch / seems listless today

Waiting, wilting / gardens dormant under / grey rainless skies

Candle blown out / relit by unseen hands / ghosts are out to play

With tapping fingers / on my sleeping window / rain came to play

Sunbeam through rain clouds / makes everything new again / even the old car

Day of feasting / villagers celebrate life / with a slaughtered pig

Two neighbors / become friends over / wine, chess and gossip

His tough old hands have / built homes, killed soldiers and still / bake the best cakes

Break in the storm / birds emerge to stretch wings / and find a quick snack

Born in a typhoon / every storm becomes a small / awakening

Spirits stirred, wind-borne / sighing leaves, weeping branches / moaning to rain-beat

Storm frees all laments / of things past and / what will never be

Weary wind subsides / leaving rain to play / in its own laughter

Luscious chords / shifting moods and expressing / the ineffable

Your immortal face / etched in my mind will fade / as does everything

Don't recognize / that impostor's face / in the mirror

Were you in my dreams? / Morning brings quiet grief and / your name on my lips

Ice in his glass / clinking in the dark / a cold reprimand

Cats on my desk / watching me, waiting for / answers I don't have

Time fades to nothing / alone in my room / playing your song

Sun emerges / casting merciless light on / half-buried beasts

Madly spinning world / gradually slows to a stop / in my tea cup

Rain brings invasions / tiny insect army / takes my kitchen

Together / we grow older and weirder / my cats and I

My murderous hand / has no less affection / for my loyal cat

I walk away / pretending the carnage / isn't my fault

My hidden cave / is dark and chaotic / but it's safe

You and me / and the bottle / always between us

Your relentless voice / will fade to nothing / with each glass I pour

Days of waiting / for reluctant rain / stillness reigns

Where have I been? / Emerging from my dim room / greeted by blossoms

Verdant breeze / stirs awake memories of / ancient island home

City solitude / cold thief of everything / I thought I was

Labyrinthine streets / lost on a search / for something long lost

Smog-scented rain / dampens alleys, feral cats / and spirits

Desktop a graveyard / for a thousand projects / I want to delete

Grove of tree ferns / a mighty jungle / to the house cat

Especially sweet / branches of blooming cherry / stolen at night

Plum trees / snow soft petals / on passing traffic

Birdsong at dawn / giving ecstatic voice / to all creation

Green fern tendrils / frame my window / like morphing drapes

Blue jay taunts / the old cat who sits, pretends / to not care

Noodles in soup / a feast slurped at night / by two old friends

Within the city's / frenzied, pulsating heart / sweet solitude

So we're less alone / we draw faces on / sun, moon, stars

Rainy day ramen / pork-garnished, broth-fragrant / spiked with kimchi

Still water takes her / nothing left behind but / fading ripples

With stealth I open / the tuna can, but my cat / demands his share

Reading old diary / feeling no more grown up / than when I was ten

Waiting for dusk to / paint the world blue / so I can vanish

Tiny droplet / perfect sphere reflecting / face, earth, sky

Her bitterness / sits deep, dark, still / a bottomless well

Her cruelty / the perfect spice for his / jaded palate

The moon smiles / turning our madness / into dreams

Without tea / day remains in limbo of / semi-consciousness

Blank page / most terrifying of / invitations

The gardener / hums romantic ballads / and beheads roses

First sun emerges / so does winter's untoned flesh / in too-tight shorts

Waking from dreams / the world is too bright / and shifts too often

Memories invade / as uninvited as / cold wind through cracks

The wind twists / as you once did / in my heart's core

Scent of pikake / captured with memories / in journal pages

Birds emboldened by / lush life of hotel gardens / ambush my room

Plantation workers / reduced to red dust / under worn tombstones

Blue within blue / color of infinity / of night's rebirth

Trapped fly / mad buzzing echoes / unspeakable thoughts

Cat's midnight cries / dire warnings, soul-wrenching angst? / I'll never know

Croissant for breakfast / watching marathoners pass by / with zero guilt

Deaf cat, startled / walking in on house party / does a double take

Windswept night / retreats into dreams / deeper than a cat's

The earth rumbles / world falls apart around us / but here, order.

Half-dead maple / one side in full leaf / the other side bald

Jasmine / riding waves of scented dusk / to my window

Longing for sleep / to make everything / disappear

Octopi / tentacles entwined / dance in circles

Sleep, let me in / need a break from / all this head noise

So heavy / memories like mountains / buried alive

Technology rebels / no choice but to write a note / with unpracticed hand

Glass overturned / he tells his story again / eyes seeing nothing

What can we do / but wait for it to fade / night of longing

Everything / given voice at once / through pre-dawn birds

Glass now empty / of bitter dreams / it refills itself

Crusty bread / glass of pinot / perfect dinner

Hummingbird / belts out aria / in its pipsqueak voice

The beast visited / in dreams again; he had / your face and my voice

At her wedding / we avoid each other's eyes / across the room

In the city / a hummingbird tries to / feed from a street lamp

Five spouting whales / drifting silhouettes against / setting sun

Lagoon at twilight / purple shadows gathered in / empty gondolas

I want to stay here / a little longer / beaches, roaches and all

After the rain / neighborhood washed and perfumed / ready for moonlight

Dinner with a stranger / he disapproves of our / bland katsu-curry

We agree to meet / another night, smiling through / lies and repulsion

Lost in Tokyo / forgetting my address / a stranger again

Hammock beckons / with memories of sea air / and lingering dusk

Stone path curves downward / damp with old moss / and secret life

Day winds down / to lazy gossip / and happy hour

Afloat / on river of old dreams / I release you

Island memories / awakened by birdsong / before dawn

First humans stir / with waking sun / the spell is broken

Island song / stay with me / to the bottle's end

At the park / graffiti on a wall / "I am here"

Jazz on radio / jasmine breeze through / open window

Peacock perched on stone / mirrored in water / kaleidoscopic blue

Reflections / light flickers on sea and stone / illuminates me

Caves crumbling with time / fill with blue sea, gold light / humming like shells

Waves wash my feet / I submerge myself / at home in broken cave

Surf, wind, wings / susurration / in hollows of stone

Gifts in cedar box / new rice for sustenance / old pearls for beauty

Sea of old sorrows / keep afloat or succumb / to its vast depths

The city / a vast and varied banquet / for hungry ghosts

Between us / an ecstatic world so vast / I lose myself

Vast the distance / between what you say / and what you do

Sky reflects / our inner / vastness

Hidden greenhouse / humid scent of living things / in the city's core

Still, the city calls / I know I will follow / with or without you

He climbs the hill / to steal brown dahlias / for my room

Old garden glove / worn through / letting in dirt

Long arm of death / finds me in my darkened room / its hand looks like mine

Beneath the pillow / where dreams usually sleep / smothered nightmares

Reason for madness / long forgotten / still raging in sleep

Absorbed in a book / almost fail to notice / the changing sky

Spring clouds / shifting overhead / ethereal islands

Sun pours through clouds / suddenly my thoughts / take on a gold sheen

Cold tea on hot day / ice cubes chime / music in glass

Evening bird / I don't know your name but / I know your song

Mountain of a man / flesh inked with ancient symbols / tribe of his own

So much energy / spent in battles between / hummingbirds

Always loudest / the shiny crow / on the phone line

Red tailed hawk / feathers blazing in sunset / chased off by crows

Finally dusk / bats emerge / for mosquito feast

Together so long / they move in sync / the old cats

Lost white hat / message embroidered on brim / 'life is good'

Colors deepen / sun sinks lower / trees cease whispering

Words by the thousands / I write for us / still fall short

Guardians and ghosts / old and new / wait for me in dreams

Desk clear / another chance to dream / another night

Ceiling corner / meeting place for spiders / and stray ghosts

Cats calling / must tend to / my masters

Years fall away / with each vintage shared / story retold

White peach / succulent gift / of summer

Branch broken / on the small maple / still it seems perfect

Sending you / plumeria-scented love / my island sister

First drops / autumn rain / tapping me awake

Shriek of crows / at city's edge / your book-filled room

Didn't notice when / nights became so quiet / absence of crickets

Wind through maple / moment washed clean / by leaf-shower

Trying to recall / our words / I hear only silence

Dancing / in the kitchen / three generations

So begins / another year of chasing / forgetfulness

On her hat / a flower blossoms / defying winter

The piano / played like a typewriter / sings strange stories

String quartet / in the subway / in their own time zone

Beauty a burden / camellia blooms droop / close to mossy stone

Lavender blooms / greedy for its scent / I fill my pockets

More rain / I wonder which memories / will visit tonight

Rain on windshield / taxi driver unmoved / by our backseat drama

June storm / shadow and light / sorrow and joy

Freeway traffic / bumper sticker proclaims / "I ♥ ♥"

Summer explodes / into joyous being / independence day

Light on water / I awaken / once more

Two poets / with foolish hearts / trying to capture the moon

Watching dreams glide by / with every boat / on the shimmering horizon

Autumn mist / not quite rain / almost tears

Song of crickets / an eternity / of nows

Seen and unseen / garden dwellers / stilled by the moon

Bus stop / huddled with pigeons / longing for flight

Jazz pulse / carrying me through / another city day

Wind-whipped / chorus of trees / whisper-raging

Crickets / silent as I pass / sharing my shame

Wrapping this silence / around myself / becoming nothing

Sunrise / dissolving / night's sorrow

Lost / somewhere across the sea / innocence

The surprise of rain / a sigh / a return to peace

A new year / a blank page / an untold story

Running to the bus / high-fiving trees / along the way

New Year's Day leftovers / knowing one day I'll miss / my mother's cooking

First sighting / of plum blossoms / but still no rain

Once again / deciding / to forget

Night-long duel / inner voice and I / nobody wins

The road home / each night brighter / closer to spring

Square of blue / dawn deepening / to mockingbird's song

Dreams of writing / waking / filled with words

Tomorrow / I'll remember / to forget

Unexpected / this loneliness / calling your name

Taunting wind / flapping shreds of sanity / against my windows

Tree fern / played by the rain / frond by frond

Always in longing / for the other half of me / whether here or there