[Mother I never knew] by Kobayashi Issa
“Mother I never knew, / everytime I see the ocean, / every time—” — Kobayashi Issa
The temple bell stops by Matsuo Basho
“but the sound keeps coming / out of the flowers.” — Matsuo Basho
Red Tulips, Then Asphodel by Brenda Shaughnessy
“Did I once / feel like a tulip // bending gracefully toward its own root, its own death” — Brenda Shaughnessy
Conversation by Ai
"and you realize how that image / is simply the extension of another image, / that your own life / is a chain of words / that one day will snap"
“Nothing in the cry…” by Matsuo Bashō
"Nothing in the cry / of cicadas suggests they / are about to die." – Matsuo Bashō
I’m Not Home, It’s Probably Better by Brenda Shaughnessy
"I am still me I am pitiless enough to have your number and call you with this excuse to let you know I am still alive" – Brenda Shaughnessy
“Even if I now saw you…” by Izumi Shikibu
"I would long for you / through worlds, / worlds." — Izumi Shikibu
No. 658 by Ono no Komachi
“the sum of those trysts / is less than a single glimpse” — Ono no Komachi
“Although the wind …” by Izumi Shikibu
"the moonlight also leaks / between the roof planks" — Izumi Shikibu