The Fate Book of Japanese Poems

I stopped by the library Monday and checked out one of my personal favorites, the Anthology of Modern Japanese Poetry (1972).  My friend decided to act out a remix of fate and randomly opened the pages of the book, claiming the poems on the page she opened to were supposed to say something about the future of someone.

Here are the fates of those whose futures she dared to peer into:

Me: "The Hospital" and "Kiss" (I burst out laughing), both by Shuntaro Tanikawa

The Hospital

Blue sky and sun are dissolved in stained creosote water,
in dark corridors eroded emotions accumulate rather than science.

Bright-colored suits are powerless in front of X rays.
Even in white clothes there is no consolation.

When patients
into the bottoms of test tubes of colored glass
timidly confine their own being
white physicians
becoming cool and accurate machines
handle cool and accurate machines.

Inside the several kinds of reverberations I do not hear a human voice.
In here everything is materialism.

The hospital is the same as a modern city without secrets.

What a dreary life lays ahead for me.  Unless I do as I plan and steer clear of the medical field.

For Andrew C-H, Sandra drew a pretty awesome tanka poem by Yaichi Aizu.  I think it's very philosophical battle manga-esque.

I stand as though
only I am existing
in heaven and earth--
at this solitarinesss,
Kannon, you are smiling.

One of the last fates Sandy drew was for my classmate Xe.  You got to feel bad for her:

A Camel, by Saisei Muro

In thin shade
a camel that is fastened,
like an aged man,
mumbling and mumbling, is eating things all day long.
His tent is like a sky with snow,
hanging grey and dismal.
Without speaking the camel
keeps moving his mouth all day.

Well, at least she didn't get On Suicide by Shiro Murano. XD

For herself, Sandra drew a haiku by Kyoshi Takahama. I'll end with it.

A white peony
it is called-- but even so,
a faint redness.