Tadao Okazaki

Kneeling Beside a Spring
in a West-Facing Basin

The spring is round, small, shallow.
With no wind to disturb,
the quiet welling
wrinkles the crystal
that covers the amphitheater

A remnant of cirrus spreads.
A sundew plant holds in its leaf
the skeleton of a dream

Sphagnum moss faintly flames bronze-gold.
Slightly off-tune, I hum

Agate pebble –
a newt plays the diatom
with her ibis-colored fingers