Nanao Sakaki
____________________
If you have time to chatter
Read books
If you have time to read
Walk into mountain, desert and ocean
If you have time to walk
sing songs and dance
If you have time to dance
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot
[ kyoto 1966]
SHARPENING A KNIFE
Nanao, keep your knife clean
Nanao, keep your mind clean
Sea breeze is bad for a knife they say
Sea breeze is good for a mind they say
Sea breeze not bad for a knife
Sharpen your knife, that's all
Sea breeze neither bad nor good
The ocean a whetstone for mind
A clean knife mind
A clean mind ocean
Nanao, sleep well tonight
Blossoming cranium lily as a shelter
The coral sand beach as a bed
The Southern Cross as a pillow.
[Iriomote, Japan
Under the Tropic of Cacer
February, 1976]
FIREWOOD
Looking for firewood in snowy mountains
Carrying back firewood
Splitting firewood
Listening to burning wood
Watching for dancing flame
So joyous
You forget yourself
You forget a serious appointment
You become a piece of firewood
Warming up
Flaming up
Singing up
Dancing up
You become ash.
[Feb. '80]
TOP TEN OF AMERICAN POETRY
The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.
— Walt Whitman
The government of the people, by the people, for the people.
— Thomas Jefferson
You deserve a break today.
— McDonald's
Where science gets down to business.
— Rockwell International
Kick the letter habit.
— Bell System
Crime hits everybody. Everybody oughta hit back.
— Chicago Crime Commission
Without chemicals life itself would be impossible.
— Monsanto
I think America's future is black, coal black.
— Atlantic Richfield Company
Have a coke and a smile.
— Coca Cola
Private property—No trespassing—Dead end road.
—Anonymous
[Thanksgiving '79]
WHY DO YOU WRITE POEMS?
Because my stomach is empty,
Because my throat's itching,
Because my bellybutton's laughing
Because my heart is love burning.
[Mons Venus, NM
November, '79]
MEMORANDUM
1970:
Carlsbad Caverns, then I moved to
White Sands National Monument.
Dr. Albert Einstein,
government officials and the Pentagon
all watched
the mushroom-shaped cloud
right here in the Chihuahua desert
25 years ago.
1973:
Jemez Springs, New Mexico,
I met a Christian priest.
At Tinian Air Base in Micronesia
he held a service for "B-29" pilots
who headed for Hiroshima,
August 6, 1945.
1945:
Izumi Air Base in Japonesia,
100 miles south of Nagasaki.
Three days after the Hiroshima bombing
I caught a "B-29" on my radar screen.
Due north. 30,000 feet high. 300 m.p.h.
Three minutes later
my soldiers shouted,
"Look, a volcanic eruption!"
In the direction of Nagasaki
I saw the mushroom-shaped cloud
with my own eyes.
1946:
Hiroshima. There,
one year after the bombing
I searched for
one of my missing friends.
As a substitute for him
I found a shadow man.
The atomic ray instantly
disintegrated his whole body,
all — but shadow alive
on a concrete wall.
1969:
Bandelier National Monument.
Beautiful ruin
of ancient people, the Anasazi.
Dead of night, the earth
quakes three times.
Not by Jemez volcano
but by underground nuclear explosion
in Los Alamos.
More ruins, more churches!
1975:
The Air Base ruin in Japonesia,
south of Nagasaki.
No more "Kamikaze pilots",
now 3,000 cranes soaring high
in the setting sun.
1979:
Northern edge of Chihuahua desert,
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
Sandhill crane, "Grus canadenis" : 1.7000.
Whooping crane, "Grus americana" : none.
As a substitute
for the extincting species
Mr. Kerr-McGee wants to dump
ever-existing nuclear waste
into "The Land of Enchantment".
[Sangre De Cristo Mountains
March 5, 1979]
PLEASE
Sing a song
or
Laugh
or
Cry
or
Go away.
[January, '81]
___________________
NANAO SAKAKI
Real Play
(Tooth of Time Books, 1983)
