In 2002, I was honored to travel to Japan as part of a Toyota/IIE program honoring teachers. Here are selected poems from that journey.

“Buddhism and Shinto are living religions in Japan.”

–Author Alex Kerr at a lunch in Izumo, Daitokoji, 2002

i

Soen Ozeki
   frenetic, bald
Zen abbot
   of Daitokuji temple
   In Kyoto

Hawks his autograph
   to American tourists

 
 

ii

A small stone shrine emerges from
   weed and wood
   behind Shoren-in temple
Overgrown
Stacked with rock

A girl
  In jeans and t-shirt
  her hair dyed
steps past me quietly

Claps once
   twice
In silent prayer

I am still

 
 

iii

Hiroshimaji dori
   is sweat and concrete
   electric wire and neon kanji

is a splash of blue hydrangea
in a forgotten alley
is a tatami weaver
In a half-covered garage

 
 

iv

Mausoleum

Horn, drum, and bell
   against Route 41

 
 

v

hibutsu
no photographs
no words
but
the shrine at Shoren-in

 
 

vi

the geiko walks with me
up the Hanamikoji slope

for that one block
   her rose and black kimono rustles
   her shoes clop carefully between laughing schoolgirls
   her measured smile
   indulges
one of us is separate

 
 

vii

Antique Dealer

Hiromisa-san
sells fading art screens

“You want flower?
You want landscape?
Ah, flower, see?
500 yen
But four for 1200 yen.”

America-jin
I buy them all.

 
 

viii

The only sound in
   sacred Chion-in temple this morning
   is the monk

cleaning tatami mats
and golden boxes
   with a Hoover

 
 

ix

Where there is awe
   there is spirit

I hear the water fall
   but I cannot see it

 
 

x

Ropes dangle from bells at 9000 shrines in Kyoto

A hunched and ancient woman
Shuffles between vendors of
Fujifilm and fried squid balls
To ring one

While tourists turn about
   In bewilderment

 
 

xi

A heron pauses
   for a school girl
   with green tea ice cream

 
 

xii

temple water drops
   into stone urns
spilled into an elder’s hands

nearby
the red Kyoto City spigot
   lies half-uncovered
   with bamboo leaves

 
 

xiii

Kanji welcome all
     to Buddhist shrines
   Hitachi!
Yamatani Pagoda
     Emerges from treetops
   Hitachi!
     Candles burn in a Chion-in temple
   Hitachi!
     Stone bridge crosses
     a stream of moss
Buy Hitachi!

 
 

xiv

Inside the Buddha
   of Ryozen Kannon
burn candles at 12 shrines
   for the war dead
   of sixty years ago

I step back into the light
   to the startled glances
   of Japanese

 
 

xv

Their eyes
     averted
     as they pass me

 
 

xvi

I write poetry of Shinto

in a garden of a Jihei Ogawa
   secluded
off the fifth floor
   of the Westin Hotel

 
 

xvii

Stone lantern is empty

   Bamboo fence leans

A bell in the distance