There is only one reason.
Of course, I do not recall
what it is. I am too distracted
recalling the tune to a chant
I heard yesterday, nine notes
that now float incessantly through
all other thoughts, so that
while making pasta or making
the bed, while drinking sake
or sitting quietly or answering
the question Why, there they are,
nine notes, stringing like garland
on the mind’s door, decorating
every thought with a rising, a soaring,
a lingering high before the tune falls, the resolve,
oh oh oh oh aaaa, oh oh ooooh oh,
festooning each breath, as if the only
reason to inhale at all is to
sing it once again, nine notes,
oh oh oh oh aaaa, oh oh oooh oh …
and there is, I am sure,
something else I am supposed
to oh oh oh oh aaaa, um say.