BY LAWRENCE HALL

Only a Japanese master can shape happy words
To fall upon the earth like soft spring rain
And choreograph merry rivulets
Through which Ame-no-Uzume dances the dawn.

Only a Japanese master can take a leaf
As a page of the Emperor’s great book
And taste it, hear it, touch it, sing of it
And in it see the completion of the world.

Only a Japanese master can wield
Kireji, On, and Kigo as a sword.