meaning « Yuri Kageyama

NOTHING HAPPENS A poem/song by Yuri Kageyama

NOTHING HAPPENS なにもおこらない A poem/song by Yuri Kageyama

I started working on this song in February 2019. It’s 2023, and I’m still working on it, finally to make a recording, with singing and music. The piece is about how people like to talk about “what’s happening” or what’s going to happen. But most of the time, nothing happens. And nothing needs to happen. If anything, it can be a good thing when nothing happens. With the pandemic unfolding, the song became for me more pertinent than ever. I reworked the song to reflect that. In June 2020, I added the rap section in Japanese that refers to the death of George Floyd. We must not forget how precious those moments are when horrible things that can happen don’t happen, and we can just sit back and enjoy the passage of time, when utterly nothing happens.

The work in progress (Artwork by Munenori Tamagawa):

Yuri Kageyama · NOTHING HAPPENS a poem/song by Yuri Kageyama with guitar/arrangement by Hide Asada

Nothing happens なにもおこらない

_ a poem/song by Yuri Kageyama

(1)

Nothing happens

Bombs no longer falling

Nations aren’t killing

Nothing happens

^___<

(2)

Nothing happens

Women aren’t screaming

Children aren’t starving

Nothing happens

^___<

(BRIDGE)

なにもおこらない

このきもち

なにもおこらない

しずけさ

^___<

(4)

Nothing happens

The stars will shine

Behind clouds that hide

Nothing happens

^___<

(5)

Nothing happens

Birds, blossoms remind

The passing of time

Nothing happens

^___<

(rap section)

Nothing happens

We took it for granted

Nothing is boring

Nobody up to no good

Looking for something

Something to happen

Before the coronavirus

Now we wake up to numbers

Pray the curve gets flattened

Pray it’s no one we know

Waiting for a vaccine

Scared by the sirens

Italy, New York, Spain, Wuhan, Tokyo

Now nothing else happens

Nothing else can happen

Now you know it:

Now you wish you didn’t wish it

Now you know for sure you like it

When Nothing happens

Yeah, Nothing happens

なにもおこらない

死ぬまえ

のこる生命で

えらんだ言葉

息ができない

彼のおもい

アメリカの差別

歴史のおもい

すべてすごくて

言葉がない

息ができない

You know that’s the view:

No news is good news,

It’s so quiet you can hear it

Silence is the music

When NOTHING HAPPENS

^___<

Nothing happens

The Virus descends

Like a stranger of death

Nothing happens

^___<

Nothing happens

We can forget the rest

How we miss those days

When Nothing happens

LOVE SIMPLY a love poem by Yuri Kageyama

LOVE SIMPLY a love poem by Yuri Kageyama

To be near hurts

To be far hurts, too

Love simply hurts

To live hurts, to die 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

It’s simply love, simply love

SHADOW a poem by YURI KAGEYAMA

SHADOW a poem written for the Poetry Challenge May 1, 2022

By Yuri Kageyama

when young,

one thinks of what

one will become

or what one

wants to be

^___<

as years pass,

we realize

what we are seen as

doesn’t really

matter

^___<

what matters

is who we really are

how we live

what it is that we do

day by day

^___<

which is not

the same thing

at all

that is what counts

in the end

Life suddenly _ a poem by Yuri Kageyama May 9, 2020

Music by Lorian Belanger inspired May 15, 2020 by “Life Suddenly,” a poem by Yuri Kageyama written May 9, 2020.

life suddenly seems so bare,

absent of distractions and noise,

honed down to essentials:

food, water,

the daily dosage of exercise,

sleep, working from home,

buying online,

safety from disease.

you realize life

is still,

alone,

full of meaning that is

so fragile

and easily lost.

A Poem About About by Yuri Kageyama

Flowers Before

Flowers After

About _ A Poem by Yuri Kageyama

Going through
Various stages
A student one moment,
A lover, a worker, a friend
Other moments
A plumber
A soldier
A poet
Mother
Daughter
Father
Son
Changing
Each moment
But no matter
Which Moment
What Stage
Whatever Roles we play
The ways we make a Living,
It’s always
About Who we are

Why? A Poem by Yuri Kageyama

WHY?
A Poem by Yuri Kageyama

Why?
Don’t ask Why.
Why?
If you need to ask, don’t.
Why?
Worse reasons.
Why?
And worse to do.
Why?
Oh, why?
Why?
Why ask?
Why do?
Why do?
Why?
Why?
Why?
And why?
But why?

EN-EN-EN-EN-EN A Poem by Yuri Kageyama

En-EN-EN-EN-EN
A Poem by Yuri Kageyama

POETRY
DOES NOT
CANNOT
EN-TERTAIN
POETRY
DOES CAN
EN-GAGE
EN-RAGE
EN-LIGHTEN

a message to children

a message to children
by YURI KAGEYAMA

Children, it is a myth that loving someone is this fairy tale.
It’s just pain that defies logic.
If we chose a person to love by logic or by weighing advantages, that won’t be love.
But whatever that essence in our soul that makes us love _ despite how foolish and painful and useless it is _ is what drives music, poetry, life, art, meaning.
It’s like this: No matter what your child is who is born to you, no matter how sick or disabled, male or female or in-between, no matter, it doesn’t matter, you as a mother would instantly love that child.
So if one loves another adult as partner, friend, collaborator, roommate, lover, it is, in principle, no different.
If you were giving to get something out of it, that wouldn’t be love, just a contract.
That’s why love is not even really needed for survival, which is about other things.
Love is so filled with suffering, so unrewarding and draining in its own right, it is utter madness.
So, children, go out and love this world.