Sample Poems by Edward Dougherty
Guest
After Morishita-sensei's calligraphy
To welcome the wind,
singing and lonely, the pine trees
make themselves
a suitable home, the way
a man will write his name
in the shape of a forest.
To welcome the ink, paper
will listen so carefully
the guest
remembers a season
in a distant homeland
then begins to speak
words so true, so essential
someone must write them.
Origami
Folded by an old woman, silver bird
what do you know? Your paper feathers
are slippery. You give the light back.
At the flash she dropped like a rag.
A single day, a single bird: the day
that repeats itself with each crease.
The hours stretch out like crows' wings.
Samuel said he wanted to come here
to help people forget the past. My eyes burn
with the day's unrelenting length.
My life is brief and my sight short.
No wonder she keeps turning paper
in her creased but unburned hand.
Aioi
What does it take
to lift a bridge?
One woman volunteered
to search the still-burning city
for neighbors and relatives
but couldn't put her foot
on the surface of the bridge--
How does it feel to walk
on people? I can only repeat
what I've been told. The bomb
exploded in the air
to spread its arms wider.
The river water bowed down
and returned to itself.
This bridge
arched into the hot air
only to settle again,
a new thing.