Storm
written by: Shinsaku Ashida
Cannot stop on its own.
Being a storm is painful.
Questioning whether being a storm
is truly being oneself
makes it even more painful.
Saying that even the storm
is waiting to calm down
is not believed,
So it’s better not to say.
Until it can remain itself
even after the storm subsides,
it continues to be a storm.
Shinsaku Ashida is a Japanese poet whose work has appeared in Down in the Dirt, Neologism Poetry Journal, and Trondheim Poesi Café, as well as in over 130 newspapers, magazines, and literary festivals across Japan. He writes in both Japanese and English, often exploring themes of memory, mortality, and silence. His work has been accepted by the Academy of the Heart and Mind, and he has won several poetry awards. He believes in the power of poetry to bridge the personal and the political, and to speak to what often goes unspoken.
