On the road with Usui in Tokyo, Japan 1951

Natural Magic

Last night you floated like an island
In an indecipherable cove where all is calm
You floated on your back, breathing
Slowly, floating like rice paper on a wave
The more irritable the seas, the calmer
You became, as if light had settled in

To a window on the port bow
Where illumination pours out
Where the air comes in
You floated like a rag on bathwater
You bobbed on winter skies above the rains
Alongside the North Star, astride the bears—
Steady in the great seas, a barge of constancy

Unheeding of the cries that surrounded you
Unknowing of the violent tides or
The storms that come, what may
You slid along on the surface
Elegant and slow as a barge, low in the water
Perfectly steady, perfectly tranquil, balanced

On your weightless back, as if your spine
Had become a rope floating in the lake
As if all the stars that licked
The shores around you had become
The curve and angle of you, shining
Like an ancient horizon where nothing
Is known and no one fears the unknown

© 2000 Viola Weinberg

The poet in Sonoma Plaza with the best cup of coffee in the world.