a lone

on a tree standing

by the cliff in an old farm

a dove –

how lonely his voice

calling for a friend this evening

~ Saigyō (cited: Makoto Ueda, Far Beyond the Field)

“Of course you must know that every letter of yours will always give me pleasure, and only beat with the answer which will perhaps often leave you empty handed; for at bottom, and just in the deepest and most important things, we are unutterably alone…” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet.