family « Yuri Kageyama

YOUR MUSIC a poem by Yuri Kageyama

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

a link to a sweet musical version on SoundCloud

Gordy with Duke in San Francisco 1979. Photo by Bob Hsiang.

I now know it’s all the same thing, love and music. Or the poem, flower arrangement or any other pursuit. It’s about connecting with all that went before you, in all their trials and tribulations, everything. And love is a part of that, your connecting with that person you love. Maybe your friend, your mother, your partner for life. It might get complicated if you are trying to connect with the past, while at the same time trying to connect with that individual, who in turn may also be connecting with the musical or theatrical greats who went before him or her. But, hey, it’s all the same thing. It is how you live and how you choose to connect. And it is definitely a lifelong effort. Worth every second. Filling you with joy and meaning about having known those special connections, and that special person. So do not mourn. Just rejoice. Keep playing, writing, creating and loving.

LOVE SIMPLY a love poem by Yuri Kageyama

LOVE SIMPLY a love poem by Yuri Kageyama

The poem as sung by Miho Ryu with music arranged and performed by Toshiyuki Turner Tanahashi.

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

「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

A rendition by Teru Kawabata with his singing and guitar. August 2025.

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.

A Thought Today

A Thought Today by Yuri Kageyama

sometimes the cruelty is unbearable

the way they snicker

say No

you

don’t

even

exist

it hurts

you know inside

it is because they are white

and you are not

and you remember

the way it happens

over and over

not from when you are born

when your mother hugged you

and your father taught you

and you had friends

who had toys and laughed

you remember

how it happens when

the world finally includes white people

who hate you

say you look like a doll

ignore you

make you feel small

find new names for you

at least they didn’t kill you

but they always like to say

My Mother’s Mink _ A poem by Yuri Kageyama

My Mother’s Mink

A poem by Yuri Kageyama

my mother’s mink

sleeps in a drawer

so silken soft;

she longed for it

like her jewels,

a bit of an embarrassment;

the Marilyn Monroe generation,

she went to college, spoke English

my mother’s mink

silent like a corpse,

all the fuzzy rodents,

womb cradling fetus;

once there was life;

I can’t get myself to

throw it out

but I will never wear it