Nozomu Shibata [Japan]

 

When

 
When did I become me?
 
From birth to death
Before I was born
 
When did I make a mistake?
 
I can't tell the difference
When did I
Ask the overlapping
 
When did I inflate it?
 
Suddenly, breaking through the layers
Breathing out
 
Buried in formlessness
 
Before I knew it
I was late for the broken day
Releasing my transparent back to the night
 
We can no longer meet casually
Soon
Now, I mourn
 
 
Illusion
 
Please give it a name
The moment I begin to think
I contemplate my thoughts
It is not me (the poem) who is being read,
but you
From the very center
of the mother cow and her calf,
a body cut in two *
 
Right and
Left—
 
Moving slowly
Through the gap between sky and sea
Even if I search for a blood connection,
I am not there
From the very center,
The heart that was cut—
 
Right and
Left—
 
Reading slowly
Even if I cling to the taste of the cut,
I am not there
I am not in this line either,
But the tree rings are breathing
What dwells within the name
Slowly shifts
 
*Reflections on Viewing Damien Hirst's Work “Mother and Child, Divided”
 
 
Toward (the Sea)
 
Stillness and movement—
Inside and outside—
Dissolving the ripples of morning and evening
　　　　　　　　　　
The dawn was silent.
The person I lived with
slept upstairs for some reason.
The two of us listened in the living room
to the footsteps echoing from the stairs.
“Ah, they come by once in a while.”
The murmur of the one
who never showed their sleeping face
was sweet.
The next day, the entire house, along with its walls and windows, swayed like a bell　　
When I went outside, there was no swaying,
and it was unusually clear.
The whole city was dazzling　　
and melting into the sunset　　　　
But in truth, it was the morning sun.
 

 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Nozomu Shibata is a poet based in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan. He was born in 1975. He is the editor-in-chief and publisher of the poetry journal “Fragile”. He won the 57th Hokkaido Poets’ Association Award for his poetry collection “Face”. He is active in Japan in solidarity with the Afghan poet Somaia Ramish.