The Months

by Jun Kuromiya

The months have been bitter, darling,
turning over in the distance.
I would rather that there
were streams to dangle my feet in,
since we are now in warm fruition.
Still
what current does not run at the pace of your heart?
At times, I am simply watering you down to dreams,
and I am embarrassed
to make such a paltry version.
And you say 'go, go you are exhausting,'
which I am,
although I really have gone,
ambled off.
Now, swimming through the lilies
between your heart beats,
I can see little parts of myself
resolve in the open air; sometimes
dignity sneaks up on you.

Jun Kuromiya is a writer and filmmaker currently residing in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from Princeton University in 2014 and has been training in Zen Buddhism, writing and filming since then.

"The Months" comes from a larger manuscript called "Song of the Mourning Dove". The manuscript deals with the path toward non-mind in Zen practice. Each poem expresses this path in some way, reflecting it from different angles and revealing its relationship to one's own life.