Closed Eyes

fierce soldiers pursue a mightier battle prospectors stagger after newly rumored gold temporary souls argue the permanence of loving flesh a garden occupies the center of every landscape the individual heart reaches the deepest mind every loss turns into an opportunity a crow flies into the fenced yard dreamers vow to breathe every moment as if in love close your eyes and listen to the piano its music ranges freely across wide spaces its silence traces the true path of time sounds and signals are perceived as the same thing you must now agree upon a signal: a minor key drawn from a nagging melody a young man whose face recurs in dreams the rose your sister touched with her dry tears (This poem was inspired by repeated hearings of 'Closed Eyes', a piano piece by Toru Takemitsu.)