Japan/my double vision

I wake up with Japan
like a window before me.
Rain from our sky
hangs on the tree's
goblet limbs
captured and still.
The unconfused
and spacious air
in Seattle grows darker
and more gray.
We are joined by waves.

I wake up with Japan
rising before me
her patchwork timber and steel
layered so it blocks the sky
and now a string of rescuers
crisscross becoming smaller
and smaller in the dark artwork
of what is left.

I wake up with Japan
and the rest of the world
reach their hands out
groaning and we can't stop
speaking of the day the earth
broke,
and how the heart
of your island
feels heavier
as the days pass
like a weary sun
passing the frightened moon.

I wake up with Japan
as each day she opens her eyes
remembering this isn't a dream.
I am hungry for photographs
to bring me closer,
to bridge the water,
to stand closer,
to do something.

I am hungry to dig my hands
down deep and pull something alive
up, anything, anything at all.

I wake up with Japan
and see as if on transparent silk
two worlds, transposed one upon
the other.

And what I touch here
I touch there.

Thus I hold a part of her fissured earth
and greet compassion, pouring
like the endless waters,
the entire atmosphere
gathering around the blue sphere
tilting slightly off center,
spinning, spinning,

and this red pain in my heart
and yours begins to heal
what was flung open
and washed,

and surprisingly,
somehow meticulously
will sew every last
lost thread together.

I wake up with Japan
typing the song as it comes
to me. Sky deepens out the window
and thunder shouts
in her mysterious
tongues.





c2011 TLStokes/Floodwaterphotography (all rights reserved)

fragment

I bow to the old man
who says the world is like this:
a day you find your car is glass
and papers,
a day on the curb
holding your head up,
cloud eyes,
a day of peopled hearts
rushing to fill the holes in,
a man hands you money
for a new window,
takes your hand when he goes,
and the foot prints
on a damp sidewalk
are poetry tapping
a tune you think
is love but
it doesn't look
familiar
so you
try not
to
look
too
closely.



old poem published
three years ago

The Big Climb

The 2010 Big Climb of the Columbia Tower in Seattle. Over 6,000 participants with proceeds going to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. These photos follow participant Kelsey Stokes on her first climb. She has inspired many by her training and dedication in preparation for this event. Go to the LLS link for more information on how you can help this noble cause. See you in 2011!

http://www.llswa.org/site/PageNavigator/BC_homepage