1. 
  
  The sky has built up
     geometry
        of turtle shells. 

   It's going to rain soon.


June 17, 2002


                           ***

2. Raindrops on a grape leaf!
      You are the same as in my childhood -
         ancient and wistful.



July 17, 2000

                            ***

3. Hardly had I turned away
      when bark beetles
         appeared on the Japanese book of pentastich poetry,
            on the table in my garden.



July 17, 2000

                                     ***


4. The trembling of the leaves on the whitewashed wall,
       where the Wind makes its magic
          and plays with their iridescent shadows,
             reflected in the countless waters...



July 20, 1999


                                  ***

5. 
  
  The last Sun in the water
     is like a vertical lightning
        when you swim back to the shore...
  
  The scent of dry grass.
     Silentia.
      I'm the last one in Kara-Dag.*


July 24 1999

___________________________
*The Black Mountain in Koktebel, the Crimea


                                    ***

6.
  
  The Moon
   drew an abstract design
      on the wall of my room
        through the trees and the windows.


 February 10, 2000


                                    ***


7.The silver half-moon crescent
   went up for a walk in the sky
     to sparkle with diamonds
       in the shimmer of the night.
  
  
  I'll pin it
   to my blue sweater
      and move my shoulder...


September 6, 2000



                                        ***
  
  
  
8.  Rain drops on the trembling branches
   in the lanterns' light...



February 10, 2000


                                      ***


9. 
  
  The dragons of the clouds
    huddled together
       into the blackness
         over the Bay...


May 29, 2001



                                           ***



  
  
10.  Your letters
     are inscribed 
    in my soul,
     like on a rock -
        cuneiform.
  
  
  And even the waves of all the Oceans,
     thrusting against this rock,
        would rather run out
         than erase the meaning of these words...

  
  
February 20, 2007


                                     ***


11.  
  
  I stand morendo...
    The grandeur of the trees
      is vanishing into the distance
       like new endeavours...


September 5, 1999


                                      ***


12.   
  
  At dawn
   in a fragment of the soul -
     there is the Sun,
   the February Sun...

       One more new day.


Jan. 20, 2005


                                   ***


13.  
  
  Medieval Japan...
   Hills on rice- paper
     and capes in the infinity of the sky
       and the sky - in the endless contemplation
         of the foggy invisible sea...

  
June 11, 1997 


14.     
  
  The cranes
   are brushing
    the conical circles
      of the white aura of the Sun
        with their wings.


   The Autumnal passage.


 Sept.12, 2009


                                    ***

15. 
  
  
  The last minutes of the sunset beauty
      dying into the night...
  

November 15, 2009


                                   ***
16.    
 
   The sea pulls a wave towords the shore
      and smashes it against the rocks.
  
   So shall we -
      being pulled into the Invisible World,
         where Death will break the body...


June 18, 2001


                                        ***


17. I want to think about the seagull,
       floating in the Free Sky,
  
   about the black streaks of magma
       frozen on the walls of the Dead City in Kara-Dag,
  
   and about the surf,
       rhythmically beating against the stones below...


  
June 18, 2001


                                   ***


18.  In my old little room,
   on the ceiling -
     there are shadows from the net lace curtain
         with papillons on it
            from the old Japanese songs...
  
  
  
  
   June 13, 2001



                                     ***


19.   My sun is over -
       the rocks have blocked out the heat.
           my path goes to the backwoods.
  
  
   
June 9, 2001


                                      ***


20.  The Moon rose orange over the sea
              and lit the way.
                   Perhaps to India?
  
  
  
June 7, 20001


                                    ***

21. Oh, the blue clouds!
      The green hills!
        And the wondrous trembling ball of the Sun...
  
   Oh, precious gift of the Earth!
  
  
June 7, 2001



                                        ***