LOVE SIMPLY a love poem by Yuri Kageyama

Love Simply

To be near hurts

To be far hurts, too

Love simply hurts

To live hurts

To die hurts

Love simply hurts

Watching you die

Hurts even more

Love simply hurts

To know you hurts

To have known you hurts

Love simply hurts

But to not know you,

Not hurt for you

Is simply not a choice

Love simply hurts

Love simply hurts

Love simply hurts

「愛はただ痛い」

a poem by Yuri Kageyama translated into Japanese by Ryu Miho

近くにいるのもまた辛い

遠くにいるのもまた辛い

愛はただ痛い

生きるのもまた辛い

死ぬのもまた辛い

愛はただ痛い

あなたが死ぬのを見るのは

もっと辛い

愛はただ痛い

あなたを知るのもまた辛い

あなたを知っていたのもまた辛い

愛はただ痛い

でも、あなたを知らないのは

あなたのために傷つかないのは

ただ選択できない

愛はただ痛い

愛はただ痛い

愛はただ痛い

This poem, now lyrics to a song, was written in 2023. It is still developing, but I feel it has come full circle. It still makes me cry. My love is still so very real and, I know, eternal, which means the pain will never go away. It is overwhelming and frightening. But I now know many people feel this way. It is a feeling that comes only with someone you truly love. The wonderful thing is that I was able to show him my poem. He just said, “I feel loved.” The look he had on his face was like a child, totally fulfilled and happy. And what else is a poem meant to do?

I read “Love Simply” with music by Jackson on drums and Teru singing and playing guitar of the music he wrote at an open-mic in Tokyo Oct. 5, 2025. Thanks for having us and being such a fun crowd.

I read my poem “Love Simply” with Teruyuki Kawabata on guitar and Osaki Haniya, fellow poet and co-writer of “Continuously Poetry,” at Bar Gari Gari in Ikenoue, Tokyo, Sept. 19, 2025. Thanks to the Drunk Poets for having us.

“Love Simply” was one of the poems presented, and rendered in the two different versions, at the Book Party for “Continuously Poetry” Nov. 29, 2025, at Infinity Books.

The links to what is becoming a series of poems.

Besides the Book Party, I also earlier read “Love Simply” with Teru at Infinity Books, on Oct. 11, 2025. Before I read, I told the people at the jam session that the poem was about my partner of more than 40 years, who died in April. I don’t think I ever said that in public about my poem. I also told them that I showed him the poem before he died, and he told me he felt loved. You know how you feel a bit drained, depressed even, after reading your work. But one young man who was there to jam told me he liked my poem, then said: “Your husband is one helluva lucky man.” That made it all worth it. And I thanked him.