End of a Dream

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C-sharp minor

plays through the eaves

of this house,

wind-cold emptiness, the ambient noise

of destruction

where laughter once lived,

Shoji, last opened to plum-blossom whispers,

now lachrymose with silent

half-life,

a bird singing for

no-one

21 thoughts on “End of a Dream”

    • Thanks, Adeeyoyo – the people and animals there are suffering unbelievably – it must be terrifying for survivors who have no prospect of going back to their homes or livelihoods

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  2. I love the beautifully portrayed emotion of this piece. It says so much with so little. Perfect description of the feelings of longing and nostalgia with understated elegance.

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  4. Wow, brilliant poem – lean and mean – the situation is never ending and just so horrible (and now with radiationn in the fish, the destruction is moving further and further away from the mainland)

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    • Thanks, Gabrielle – the neverending aspect of it is really the stuff of nightmares and must be having a terrible impact on the national psyche there – and, as you have pointed out, it’s effects are moving beyond Japan. 😦

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  5. Beautiful poem. I think emptiness might be the most fearful thing of all, Bluebee, for this people struck by the worst nature can hurl at them. You’ve summed that up so well.

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    • Thanks, Kate – it’s that stripping away of all someone has known: the daily rituals and habits that unconsciously bring comfort and structure to our lives – it’s hard to comprehend how that must feel.

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  7. This is soooo beautiful!! Music/wind and shoji!

    Sad, but encompassing life! Plums open first, then cherries.

    Beautiful, Bluebee. And EXCELLENT poem…made me cry.

    Lady Nyo

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    • Thank you, thank you for your response, Lady Nyo – I know these events are a great sadness for you. I watch in grave fear for the people of Japan and hope their resilience will prevail. On a personal level, I have to tell you a vaguely bizarre fact of my life is that this country and culture that informed my childhood daydreams from the age of 6 is one I’ve yet to visit in all my global travels (my childhood bedroom in Africa was full of oriental furnishings and pictures and if you asked me then what I wanted to be, it was “Japanese” 🙂 ). So, I am committed to going elsewhere this year, but next year, Japan has to move to the top of my TTDBID list (things to do before I die). bb

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  8. Perhaps we walk with the Japanese by such expressions, and perhaps we can set up a small shrine to bring our thoughts to this devastated nation.

    I have, and it helps.

    Lady Nyo

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