Your Music a poem by Yuri Kageyama
He loved me
More than he loved
His Music
And his Music is
Huge
Because
When you play
That kind of Music
The Music
Is about Everybody
Each Player
Even the listener
But especially the Music
Not just then and there
But all the Music
That went Before
You knew that
So you just smiled
When I said
It wasn’t your Music
And I didn’t even think or know
How much you loved me
Because our love was bigger
Than all that
Music
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
A song about love with Words written by Yuri Kageyama and Music and song by Ryu Miho
what do you think?
it’s a trick question
what do you think?
with a right answer
what do you think?
not at all open-ended
what do you think?
as it might seem
what do you think?
it’s asking do you really love me?
do you truly understand?
what do you think?
the answer isn’t fixed
just a right answer, and a wrong
what do you think?
i love you so much
what do you think?
and long after we’re all gone
what do you think?
that big question is still there
what do you think?
what do you think?
Lovers are always asking each other: “What do you think?” and getting upset if their lover doesn’t quite get it, or answers he or she felt something about an artwork or a film they just saw together in a different way from what you’re feeling, or thought the feeling should be, or whatever. It’s really a fruitless game, but it’s one all lovers play, all the time, throughout history, wherever they are, any nation, any culture. Because ultimately you’re just asking: Do you love me? And there is no right answer or a wrong one. Just that moment you share, you are both here, alive but together on this little beautiful planet, lost in the cosmos, and we never know what to think anyway.
And this version as arranged and performed by Toshiyuki Turner Tanahashi.
The Bear _ a poem by Yuri Kageyama
It still sits crumply
With bit of a stunned look,
That first thing you bought for me
More than 40 years ago
“Into that little girl thing,” you said,
Like you were calling me out on a pretense
But you knew all along it was true
Like our love;
“I want you to live a full life,” you said.
Days, weeks, months,
Years from now after you’re gone
Piercing my heart,
Squeezing out tears,
The bear is still here,
Dry cleaned
Maybe just once or twice,
Watching me
Sitting prim
People say things have little meaning, and it’s just the person or the emotions that the thing reminds you of that have meaning. Sometimes they are one and the same thing because if you have something for more than 40 years, that certainly means something, and that thing has a meaning of its own. People leave, taking off from this world and going somewhere very far. But the thing stays. And it continues to tell us what that person means. Because that person never really leaves. He is always here, just like, or even more than, that thing. This is the fourth in a series that follows this third piece, which has a link that connects to the previous pieces.
https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/UHpWS3a76U/
This is a song Isaku wrote for his father, “Sanctity,” featuring Sumie Kaneko on vocals.
あなたからの 贈りもの
遠く離れても 耳をすませば
私の大事な宝もの
か弱い鼓動 今は誇り
惜しむ間もなく 走れども
もう何も耐えることはない
てしおにかけた 我が子ども
もう何も迷うことはない
This is how I’ve translated the words into English:
This gift I got from you
Listen hard, even from afar
It’s my most precious treasure
That faint beat is now my pride;
Before one even knows it, that passing of time,
There is nothing to bear anymore,
That child, you raised with all this love,
There is no uncertainty anymore
From “Katari Vol. 2 Stories from Japan” by Isaku Kageyama 2025.
YOUR ROOM _ a poem by YURI KAGEYAMA
The door is open
It still smells like you
So sweet
Strange how I don’t remember
Your smelling so sweet
I let it air out
I don’t want the smell to fade
But to let you have some fresh air
This is the third part in a series, which has the link connecting to the earlier pieces. The link to the piece that follows this one.
My Second Ikenobo Ikebana
Actually my teacher told me it’s against the rules to let a flower that broke off float in the water, when I did it. But when he took the photos at the end of the class with all the lighting set up, or actually another student and me holding them up, he took the flower, dropped it in the water and took this photo. He is a nice teacher. Although allowed in other styles of Ikebana, Ikenobo did not, seeing fallen flowers as death, and his works are about life, purity and our eternal connection to the spiritual. It made me sad that death is so beautiful. And I like this photo.
what do you think?
a poem by Yuri Kageyama
what do you think?
it’s a trick question
what do you think?
with a right answer
what do you think?
not at all open-ended
what do you think?
as it might seem
what do you think?
it’s asking do you really love me?
do you truly understand?
what do you think?
the answer isn’t fixed
just a right answer, and a wrong
what do you think?
i love you so much
what do you think?
and long after we’re all gone
what do you think?
that big question is still there
what do you think?
what do you think?
This is the first piece in a still untitled series. Continue to this link for the rest of the series.
FEARLESS AT 90 a poem by Yuri Kageyama
I am fearless at 90
Wrinkles deep as the Nile
Hair translucent spiderwebs
Varicose veins throbbing blood
A map of fate on a carcass of skin
I am fearless at 90
I rap poetry with my dentures
Jazz dance with my wobbly knees
I rock like Jimi Hendrix
We Boomers invented Revolution
I am fearless at 90
I’m so close to the pearly gates
I’m on speaking terms with the angels
I’m so near-sighted I read minds
My fungus breath slays dragons
I am fearless at 90
My wheelchair zips Ferrari-style
My voice resonates five octaves low
My cane duplicates as a samurai sword
My hearing aid just blocks out noise
I am fearless at 90
I have no appointments to keep
No bosses to please
No dates to impress
No one can put me down
I am fearless at 90
I barely remember what’s up or down
Or who is where anymore;
Beyond gender, race, class,
Or even age
I am fearless at 90
My skin like washi paper
My fingers gnarled like a witch
I am neither man nor woman
White, black, brown or yellow.
I am just 90, and fearless:
Those days are long gone,
Not trusting anyone over 30,
I’ve given birth to a thousand children
And have a million grandchildren
I am fearless at 90
Although death is around the corner,
I’ve seen war and peace
Endured abuse to survive;
Don’t expect or need respect
I’m proud to be fearless at 90
^___<
Note from the poet:
I am not yet 90, but I feel this way and wrote this poem.
When I’m 90, I will write my real fearless at 90 poem.
The poem was published in the Winter 2024 issue of KONCH MAGAZINE.
More with Turner at this link.
My Poetry in Ishmael Reed’s KONCH
My poetry gets published in Ishmael Reed’s KONCH MAGAZINE.
“Fearless at 90” in KONCH magazine Winter 2024 issue.
What a thrill. And what company I keep.
My reading of the poem with bass by Toshiyuki “Turner” Tananashi. Tokyo 2024.
THE BROKEN FRAME a poem by Yuri Kageyama
The ambulances are screaming. We look up and see a big tear in a steel fame right by our apartment building. We wonder but figure it’s not a murder because we don’t read about it, and there aren’t that many murders in Tokyo. Every time we see the broken frame, we wonder who it could have been. And what might have driven this individual, whom we don’t know and never will know, male or female, young or old, happy or unhappy, probably unhappy, literally over the ledge to a dark deep definitive leap of death. It does not make us feel very good. Every time we see that broken frame. A few weeks later, the frame gets fixed. And we stop wondering.