A Fable: a friend is gone
by rebecca ~ January 14th, 2005. Filed under: Poems & art.
The poemcard called “A Fable” is written for my friend, the poet Kijima Hajime, who passed away last year. He will be missed! I met him only in words, we never met face to face, but through letters, faxes, postcards and emails, he inspired me with his joy of words, his mixing of drama, music, image with poems, and his reaching out to me, a stranger, and inviting me to co-translate modern Japanese poems with him for publication.
It is rare to meet an artist who seeks out others and takes joy in working with people, even those who are unknown, such as me. His readers know him mostly for his linked haiku (renga) postcard collaborations with poets and working happily in languages from distant places. He also translated Langston Hughes’s works and children’s books, such as those by Ezra Jack. I will miss his generous spirit and it is hard to believe there will be no more of his packages of books, artcards and poems at my doorstep.
I only found this sad news out yesterday when I received from his wife one of those colorless traditional postcards announcing death in Japan. I had noticed his email address stopped working months ago, but I had hoped it was a glitch, as he was a professed novice with a computer. Maybe my fear for the worst kept me from believing anything else… I knew he was very ill.
Today I feel sure his warmth and humble beauty will stay on earth with us, if we look and listen closely to the smallest and slowest moments of each day.