Minoru Yoshioka from Seibutsu

Still Life

     Some things are just better left to the imagination.  Which is why I have never fully understood poems.  From metaphor to metaphor, to an even more heavy abstract concept, all bundled into a little paragraph; there's just no end.  Yet, I always find myself reading one or two here and there.  You see, although I don't understand them, nor will I ever, I think it's the fact that you can say whatever you want with no definite form, that attracts many, that attracts our imaginations.  But I digress, the only reason I even chose this poem was because it was short and to the point.
     Yet, here I was striving for a quick read only to accomplish blankness.  I didn't expect it to be so hard to grasp and to understand.  Reading this poem really took my confusion to a whole other level.
  
     "The abundant decomposition of time
       surrounding, 
       before the teeth of the dead."

My mind is blown. I don't know where to begin, so I wont.
     I believe imagination is shown when the author describes the night sky as, "the hard surface of night's bowl."  I also really like how he describes that all the autumn fruits of this world are inside this so-called "deep bowl," so dark and so vast.  He also goes on to explain how each fruit falls asleep, one by one, all to the same melody of time, "collecting their weight."
     It made me think about how we all fall asleep.  How we all get into our beds and attempt to find a comfortable position, tossing and turning; but it's only when we calm ourselves, listen to our heart beat, and wait for each breath, that we really fall asleep.  At least that's all I got out of it.
     As I write to myself, I think I finally get why the author entitled this poem, Still Life.  But I guess some things are just better left to the imagination.